July 15, 2020

US trade group questions China's decision to suspend import of Ecuadorian shrimp

US industry trade group National Fisheries Institute (NFI) has questioned China's recent move to suspend imports and order recalls of frozen shrimp from three Ecuadorian companies.

The suspension was imposed after China claimed that "outer packaging…were at risk of being contaminated by the new coronavirus." However, NFI president John Connelly said in a press statement that "the Chinese Customs announcement states they found no evidence of the virus on the inner packaging of the samples they tested, nor on the shrimp itself."
 

Connelly also argued that "there is no known transmission of the novel coronavirus from food or food packaging", based on the US Food and Drug Administration's standpoint.
 

"Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and the European Food Safety Agency reinforce this finding," Connelly added. "In addition, the Chinese government emphasised humans would not get COVID-19 from the shrimp, stating, experts judged that the result of the detection did not mean that it was transmissive."
 

Connelly called for countries to abide by the advice of the World Health Organization, which declares that food has not been proven to transmit the coronavirus. 
 

"Simply stated, global public health experts continue to state that humans will not get coronavirus from frozen food or its packaging.  Stating, implying, or reporting otherwise is just wrong," said Connelly. 
 

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