Staff members of Taiyuan Customs prepare for quarantine inspection. [File photo/Shanxi Daily]

North China's Shanxi province recently established a network of warehouses for imported frozen and refrigerated meat in its 11 prefecture-level cities, so as to effectively prevent the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic spreading through imported cold chain food.

The general warehouses -- each consisting of a wareroom to be inspected and a wareroom for qualified products -- have established centralized control of all imported frozen and refrigerated meat entering the province. 

The operational procedure is to transport imported meat to the inspection wareroom, whence meat passing novel coronavirus nucleic acid tests and disinfection will be transferred to the wareroom for qualified products, to be marked with quarantine seals for it to be sold from the general warehouse. 

Meat tested positive in virus testing will be handled according to related guidelines for disposal. 

All personnel entering and leaving the general warehouses in the cities have followed strict protection measures and all areas of the general warehouses are disinfected and sterilized regularly. 

In addition, the general warehouse operators have established product information files for product consignments and enhanced their inspections and problem-solving systems, to ensure that the source of food entering the warehouses is checked and the whereabouts can be tracked.

The general warehouses have been effective in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Taiyuan general warehouse, for example, found that a sample of outer packaging from imported frozen beltfish tested positive for the virus on Nov 7 and immediately activated containment protocols to deal with the contaminated food.