Is it true that coronavirus was found in Chinese ice cream?

In January 2021, a year after the beginning of the pandemic, reports appeared in the news: in one of the Chinese cities, Tianjin Koronavirus was found in ice cream. We decided to check if this statement is true.

In mid -January, a message appeared on the news portals: in the Chinese city of Tianjin, ice cream was tested on coronavirus, and the test turned out to be positive. The news was distributed by such publications as China Daily, Sky News, The Huffington Post and others. That's what China Daily wrote:

“On Thursday, three samples of local ice cream, which used dry milk from New Zealand and a condensed serum from Ukraine, produced under the Daqiaodao brand in the Tianjin, gave a positive test for Covid-19.

Since then, a campaign began in the city to close the refrigerators, on which this ice cream was stored ".

That's right. On January 15, the Tianjin municipal government issued a statement confirming the news headlines: coronavirus really found coronavirus in three samples of ice cream.

According to the statement, in one of the districts of the city, epidemiologists tested on the Covid-19 several models of ice cream Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Co., Ltd. With different tastes, and three of them gave a positive result. Their imported ingredients included, in particular, milk powder from New Zealand and a condensed milk serum from Ukraine.

After the detection of “coronavirus” samples, the municipal health authorities temporarily closed the company, and its employees were additionally tested on the Covid-19. Here's what is said in the statement from Chinese (simplified) to Russian in Google Translate:

“As of 14:00 on January 14, the company is completely sealed and controlled, the entrance and exit of personnel and goods is prohibited; a warehouse with goods on which there were infected products, sealed, goods from the warehouse are monitored; All employees of the company are quarantined. Testing on RNA and antibodies, home isolation for members of employees' families has been introduced; The operation of retail outlets has been temporarily stopped, there is a check of personnel stream and their testing, there is a complete selection of raw materials, existing goods, the internal and external environment of the company, the hostel of employees, etc. are disinfected. ”

In total, the company produced more than 4,800 boxes with infected ice cream - about 2000 of them were sealed and waited for sending, the statement said. Another 2750 packages managed to enter the market, more than 930 of them - in the Tianjin, about 1800 went beyond the city.

“If you have recently bought the ice cream of this brand, please inform the authorities,” the report said. 

Commenting on the incident Sky News, a virologist from Lida University Stephen Gryffin declaredWhich, probably, one or more people handed over the virus to the ice cream during production.

Griffin explained that, apparently, the cold temperatures at which ice cream is stored, and the fact that it contains fats can be the reason why the virus is preserved in products. However, he added a virologist, it is not worth raising a big panic due to the detection of Covid-19 in ice cream.

“Most likely, this is a unique case,” said Gryffin. “Of course, no level of infection is unacceptable and we must remain vigilant, but probably this situation is the result of problems in the production and non -compliance of hygiene requirements at the factory.”

Is it true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. DID Ice Cream Test Positive for Covid-19?
2. Covid-19: Ice Cream Tests Positive for Coronavirus in China