THE city officially unveiled five local standards for the centralized supervision of imported cold chain products recently. The standards will be implemented starting May 1, sources from the Shenzhen Market Supervision and Regulation Bureau said.

Since Aug. 18 last year, Shenzhen has taken the lead in using a centralized supervisory warehouse for imported cold chain foods in a bid to strengthen supervision, curb the risk of COVID-19 infections and ensure smooth and efficient delivery of goods. All frozen and chilled meat and aquatic products imported through Shenzhen are required to pass through the new warehouse and undergo packaging disinfection as well as nucleic acid tests. The whole process involving the transport, storage and sales of imported frozen foods will also be traced.

Data from the administration showed that by April 20, the warehouse had carried out random inspections on 74,990 batches and conducted nucleic acid tests on 447,523 samples.  Among them, 83 samples tested positive for COVID-19. A total of 63 batches of imported frozen meat that had tested positive — involving 29 shipping containers and 18,401 packages of frozen meat — were intercepted.

According to the administration, the five local standards for centralized supervisory warehouses are urgently needed for COVID-19 prevention and control.

The local standards standardize the whole process of centralized supervision of the warehouse from storage, loading and unloading to disinfection and sampling inspections. The standards ensure a smooth and efficient process. Shenzhen’s successful practices have been studied and adopted by other cities around the nation. Many provinces and cities sent officials to Shenzhen’s centralized supervisory warehouse to learn.  The market supervision authorities also plan to share their experiences and promote the practices in more regions and municipalities in China.

(Han Ximin)