Coronavirus Allegedly Found in China-Made Ice-Cream; Manufacturer Has Since Been Sealed


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A new flavour of ice cream has hit the streets of Tianjin, a city in northeastern China.

Unlike every other ice-cream flavour, this one doesn’t actually taste like anything, can actually make you sick, and has no discernable colour.

In fact, you can only see it if you happen to be carrying around an electron microscope.

I’m joking about the new flavour, of course, but the pesky coronavirus has actually been found in one of our beloved desserts.

Coronavirus Allegedly Found in China-Made Ice-Cream; Manufacturer Has Since Been Sealed

At least five samples of ice cream made in Tianjin have tested positive for Covid-19. Some say it was because they didn’t wear masks or practise social distancing.

In any case, it has sparked concerns over infection through food.

A Ukrainian milk powder used to make the ice cream was the likely source, as investigations revealed that three samples of the powder and two further samples of ice creams from the same batch were also found to contain the virus.

Most of the potentially contaminated ice cream had been traced and recalled, but 21 ice creams remained unaccounted for, raising the question: can you contract the coronavirus via food?

May Present a Risk, But No Conclusive Evidence Yet

The short answer is that we don’t know yet.

Previously, the World Health Organization said the possibility of catching Covid-19 from frozen food is low, even though China has linked infections to imported food.

However, frozen food is typically safe to eat because most of us don’t start chowing down on chicken wings immediately after taking them out of the freezer; we cook them in high temperatures first, killing the virus.

Conversely, ice cream is cold and stored in a low-temperature environment, which can prolong the survival of the coronavirus.

This is why the virus is often detected on frozen foods. As Han Jie, an environmental science professor from China’s Xian Jiaotong University, explained:

“The frequent detection of Sars-CoV-2 in frozen foods suggests that these are not random, isolated incidents but rather signs that viral contamination and food-borne transmission may present a systematic risk in the ongoing pandemic.”

But while it may seem possible to contract the virus through food, we should remember that it would have to infect us through our digestive tract for that to happen.

And at the moment, there’s no conclusive evidence that such a mode of transmission is possible.


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Moreover, food is rarely contaminated with the coronavirus.

So, you can continue to shove tubs of ice cream in your mouth to deal with the loss of leisure travel and KTV sessions without any worries of falling ill.

At such a troubled time, taking away ice cream, too, would just be plain cruel.

Featured Image: Phil.Tinkler / Shutterstock.com