Milk jujube Photo: VCG
The batches of milk jujubes tested positive for the coronavirus that were produced in Zaozhuang, a city in East China’s Shandong Province, used the same Ukraine-sourced whey powder as some samples of ice cream that tested positive for the virus in North China’s Tianjin, domestic news site thepaper.cn said on Sunday.
Some milk jujubes that tested positive for the coronavirus had been circulating in at least 14 places in China, but authorities said the risk of infection remains low.
The local factory in Zaozhuang, which had produced the jujubes, has been taken under control by local authorities for epidemiological investigation. The firm purchased 10 tons of Ukraine-produced whey powder imported through Tianjin port on January 5, according to media reports. Local authorities said the ingredients tested positive for coronavirus on January 18, which turned out to be the same batch of ingredients found in coronavirus-positive ice cream reported in Tianjin earlier this month.
Three samples of ice cream made from New Zealand-sourced milk powder and Ukrainian dried whey tested positive for COVID-19 in Tianjin on January 14.
About a week later, another batch of whey powder imported from Ukraine by a food company in the city tested positive for the coronavirus.
Out of the 14 places, five cities in Shandong, six in Southwest China’s Guizhou and Lishui in East China’s Zhejiang Province reported positive samples of milk jujubes after the product were sold online and circulated to customers, local authorities said on Saturday.
Guizhou provincial health authorities tested the 720 people involved. So far, no positive cases were reported. Related people were quarantined for medical observation and epidemiological study is still ongoing.
Cities such as Huai’an in East China’s Jiangsu and Luohe in Central China’s Henan Province are still inspecting milk jujubes.
According to the Guizhou provincial health commission, the risk of being infected with the virus remains low because the virus can survive in normal environments for about seven days. The related milk jujubes had been stored at room temperature for more than one month from the importation of raw materials, processing and production to the hands of consumers.
No cases of direct contact with the milk jujubes have been reported so far.
Those milk jujubes and the imported whey powder used to make them that tested positive for the novel coronavirus were produced by a food company from Shandong’s Zaozhuang on January 19. The official did not report which county the whey powder was from.