July 18, 2023

Air passengers entering Thailand warned not to bring in Chinese sausage due to ASF concern

Air passengers were warned on July 17 against bringing a particular type of illegal Chinese-branded sausage into Thailand due to its tendency to spread the African swine fever (ASF) virus.

The alert over the safety of the meat, popular among Chinese-style hotpot restaurants, came in a Facebook post by the country's Department of Livestock Development's (DLD) Quarantine and Inspection Canine Unit at Suvarnabhumi airport.

According to the post, one of their detection dogs had led to the seizure of 100 illegal sausages in the luggage hold of a Hainan Airlines flight that had departed from Meilan International Airport in Haikou County, China, on July 13.

The confiscated pork sausages were sold under the name Shuanghui, known to Thai consumers as Lion Brand, and produced by a manufacturer in Henan province. They became especially favoured by consumers following the popularity of Chinese-style hotpot restaurants in Thailand.

Lertchai Lertwut, deputy secretary-general of the Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said none of the sausage brand importers had registered with the FDA, and that is why the packaging does not display a food serial number or legal label.

The lot of defective sausages, 8.5 kilogrammes in total, was immediately seized as a swine fever epidemic has been detected in the country of origin.

Sophat Chawankul, the DLD deputy director-general, said elevated security procedures have been in place since 2018, when rising cases of ASF were first reported in Asia.

- Bangkok Post