The chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture expressed alarm over reports that imported frozen food from Latin America have been found positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus, which causes the deadly disease, COVID 19.
Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga asked the Department of Agriculture (DA) to gather more information about the report but called on officials to impose stricter quarantine protocols for imported food products.
“This is alarming. The Department of Agriculture together with the DOH and FDA should deeply look into this matter and determine probabilities of transmission,” said Enverga in a Viber message on Thursday night.
“The Department of Agriculture should enforce stricter quarantine protocols and explore the possibility of conducting random testing of imported meat entering the country to ensure the public's safety,” he stated.
Enverga said there is a big possibility that handlers of the Brazil chicken products were suffering from COVID-19 but were asymptomatic.
Earlier, Chinese authorities called on consumers in Shenzhen City to be cautious in buying imported frozen products after samples of chicken wings from Latin America were found to be infected with the coronavirus.
Reports claimed the laboratory tests of the surface of the chicken meat showed the presence of coronavirus.
However, people who consumed chicken from the same Brazilian exporter have tested negative to COVID-19.
Previous to this, Chinese authorities have reportedly found the surface of packaging of imported seafood to have coronavirus.
It was reported that the chicken importation was made by Aurora Alimentos plant , a Brazilian food exporter.
The samples of imported frozen seafood that landed in local markets in Yantai town in Shandong province, have also been found to contain coronavirus.
On Wednesday, Chinese media also reported that local authorities in Anhui province disclosed that packages of frozen shrimp from Ecuador tested positive for the dreaded virus.