Hong Kong suspends import of chicken meat from one Brazilian slaughterhouse due to covid-19

The government of Hong Kong, an autonomous province of China, has suspended the import of chicken meat from the slaughterhouse unit in south Brazil, according to a statement released on Tuesday, 18, on the website of the Food Security Center (CFS) of the country. The measure, according to the agency, is due to the presence of traces of new coronavirus in a batch of frozen chicken wing belonging to the Brazilian slaughterhouse and detected last week by the municipality of Shenzhen.

“As a matter of prudence, the CFS has also temporarily suspended the Hong Kong chicken import license application from the factory in question (registration number: SIF601), pending further investigation of the case and test details from the authorities competent, ”says the statement.

The agency also said that after the event in Shenzhen, it collected 40 samples of frozen chicken meat from Brazil at import and wholesale levels for testing the covid-19 "as a precautionary measure". "All samples were negative for covid-19," said CFS in the statement.

In the note, the CFS points out that, according to the World Health Organization and global food safety authorities, there is no evidence to indicate that humans can be contaminated by covid-19 through food intake.