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The city of Hefei is joining other parts of the nation in taking strict
measures regarding its imported cold-chain market, requiring identity
information from buyers of these products, but the Global Times found
that the new policy will have a limited effect because many vendors have
suspended such business. Hefei, the capital of East China's
Anhui Province, issued an emergency notice on Monday, ordering real-name
purchases for imported cold-chain food together with strict
disinfection and multiple certification requirements. At Hefei's
largest wholesale farmers' market, Baida Zhougudui, a Global Times
reporter learned from cold-chain merchants that the market stopped
selling imported frozen food last month. A loudspeaker there keeps
broadcasting the ban on such sales on Wednesday when most venders had
closed.
At a Carrefour mall, a Global Times reporter did not see
any imported cold-chain food on sale. A person in charge at the mall
surnamed Ma said due to recent cases of imported food testing positive
for COVID-19, the facility stopped selling such products in November. Notices
in the fresh food section showed that all domestic cold-chain products
on shelves had tested negative for COVID-19. Ma said the mall had not
yet received notices to require real-name purchases. The
Global Times did not find any frozen imported food from a local
supermarket Yonghui. Customers are picking fresh pork and other products
at late night. Hefei's new rule came after successive reports of imported cold-chain food
samples testing positive for COVID-19 in cities across China in the
past few months, which experts noted could pose a risk of another
outbreak in China in this winter. More than 40 such cases have been
reported in at least 16 provinces and regions, and they have caused
related infections in cities like North China's Tianjin and East China's
Qingdao. A number of cities including Beijing and Tianjin
earlier launched new rules to regulate cold-chain food markets, but
Hefei marks the first Chinese city to lock the last link on the
cold-chain traceability chain by adding consumers. Hefei's
latest notice orders the industry to enhance mapping and inspection of
key sites of cold-chain imports, including third-party cold storage,
food processing enterprises, catering units, shopping malls,
supermarkets and wholesale markets. It will apply dynamic management to
supervise epidemic prevention and control measures among cold-chain
employees, to ensure timely detection and control of COVID-19 epidemic
risks. Four certificates are mandatory before an imported
cold-chain product can go to market: a traceability certificate,
certificate of entry inspection and quarantine, nucleic acid testing
certificate, and disinfection certificate. Consumers must register with their real names to ensure full traceability.
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