Coronavirus was found on ice cream produced in Eastern China, prompting an urgent recall of cartons from the same batch.
According to the Chinese government, the Daqiaodao Food Co, Ltd in Tianjin was sealed and 1,662 employees are being tested for the coronavirus and placed in quarantine.
There was no indication that anyone had contracted the ice cream, but a recall has been issued regardless.
A total of 935 boxes of ice cream were in Tianjin, with only 65 being sold to markets. This is out of 2,747 boxes that entered the market, with authorities notifying others of sales to their areas.
Authorities in the northern Chinese municipality of Tianjin are tracing ice cream contaminated with #COVID19 after three samples produced by Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Co., Ltd. tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/7oTLu2e1Us
— Sixth Tone (@SixthTone) January 15, 2021
The ingredients of the ice cream included New Zealand milk powder and whey powder from Ukraine.
The Chinese government has suggested that the coronavirus came from abroad and has highlighted what it says are discoveries of the coronavirus on imported fish and other food.
Foreign scientists are sceptical of these claims, with a virologist claiming it’s “probably a one-off”.
“It’s likely this has come from a person, and without knowing the details, I think this is probably a one-off,” Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist based at the University of Leeds, told Sky News.
“Of course, any level of contamination is not acceptable and always a cause for concern, but the chances are that this is the result of an issue with the production plant and potentially down to hygiene at the factory.”
Griffin also stressed that there is no reason to panic.
“We probably don’t need to panic that every bit of ice cream is suddenly going to be contaminated with coronavirus,” he added.
This article originally appeared on Over60.