Beijing's regulation determining that all imported frozen food at or below zero degrees Celsius must have full logistic information went into effect Friday, according to a statement by local authorities.

The city had already requested that imported cold-chain meat and seafood be trace but now all imported cold-chain food at or under zero degrees Celsius were included.

Last October, Beijing announced it would roll out a digital platform to track import routes of frozen meat and seafood as sporadic COVID-19 infections were reported among cold-chain workers.

The new rules will be applied to more frozen products, including grain products, dairy, vegetables, fruit, desserts, and beverages.

On Friday, QR codes were set next to imported frozen products in supermarkets – from durians to ice creams – allowing buyers to track the logistic history, Beijing News reported.

By scanning the code via WeChat, buyers can access the items' origin, date of production, import check certificate, and the result of the nucleic acid test.

Local authorities aim to make all imported food traceable, Beijing News said, citing an unnamed official from Beijing's market supervisor. 

Some markets are already working on it. At a supermarket in Fengtai District, imported fruits that are usually kept at room temperature, including avocados, kiwis, and jackfruits, were all labeled with the QR code. The newspaper said that some other supermarkets also made room-temperature dairy and hams traceable. 

Wang Jianqiao, a market supervisor in Haidian District, advised customers to reduce direct contact with imported frozen foods by wearing gloves and cooking the food thoroughly.

The authorities advised market owners to make imported cherries traceable, the newspaper said, citing Liu Hao, a market supervising official in Chaoyang District. Many of the fruits are imported from South American markets such as Chile, and some samples from the cherry packages tested positive for the coronavirus in China, triggering public concerns over the safety of imported cherries. 

Cold chain scare 

Cold chain has become a possible virus source because the virus can survive longer in low-temperature environments as well as in seafood markets and logistics stations that are comparatively confined and crowded and therefore is easier to transmit the virus. 

China has recently detected coronavirus on the surface of imported frozen food packages and even fruits in multiple cases, raising public concerns about whether the virus could be contracted when food transported in contaminated packaging is consumed. 

"So far, there have been no reported cases of consumers contracting the novel coronavirus from purchasing or having contaminated food," said Li Ning, deputy chief of the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, at a press briefing. 

He added that the positive rate of the virus on imported food packaging is extremely low as the virus is unable to reproduce.

Currently, those who were infected by cold-chain products are all cold chain workers or logistics staff rather than the customers who purchased the products.

With China enhancing safety measures, immediate action will be taken on products where the virus is detected. According to Li, the chances of consumers getting infected by touching an infected surface is close to zero.