At the beginning of the new year in 2021, the prevention and control of the epidemic situation in COVID-19 once again touched people’s hearts, and the related problem of "safety on the tip of the tongue" also attracted people’s attention: what kind of influence does imported cold chain food have on the spread of Covid-19, how to prevent the rebound and control food pollution during the Spring Festival epidemic prevention, how to eat it to avoid "illness from the mouth", and whether a reasonable diet can improve immunity and resist the virus … …
At the recent media communication meeting on scientific interpretation of food safety and health hotspots in 2020, Meng Suhe, chairman of the chinese institute of food science and technology, said that under the epidemic situation, people’s concern about food safety is declining, but the correlation between the epidemic situation and food safety and cold chain food is increasing; In addition, food nutrition and health issues related to improving human immunity have attracted attention.
Many experts and scholars have systematically combed and scientifically interpreted the hot issues of food safety and health related to epidemic prevention and control.
How to treat the carrier that carries and spreads the virus
"Imported cold chain food is a very high-profile food topic in 2020, because they and their packaging may become carriers for carrying and spreading Covid-19 across borders over a long distance." Li Ning, vice chairman of chinese institute of food science and technology and deputy director of the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center, said.
She told reporters that Covid-19 has survived for a long time at low temperature. At present, many foreign countries are in the outbreak period of COVID-19 epidemic, and the surfaces of various objects, including food and its packaging, may be contaminated. As the temperature drops in winter, not only the cold chain food and its packaging, but also all international transportation environments are similar to the cold chain system, and related items may become carriers for carrying and spreading Covid-19 across borders.
At the same time, Li Ning said that although Covid-19 nucleic acid was detected in imported cold-chain food and its packaging from time to time recently, overall, the overall pollution rate of imported cold-chain food and its packaging was relatively low, and it was mainly concentrated in the packaging. As of November 25th, 2020, the national cold chain food and packaging samples monitoring and sampling results organized by National Health Commission showed that the pollution rate was 0.48 ‰.
She said that the general public is generally unlikely to come into contact with the outer packaging, and the probability is relatively small, and the corresponding infection rate is relatively low. The high-risk groups are mainly those who frequently come into contact with these items that may be contaminated and have inadequate protection. She therefore gave advice — —
First, the prevention and control of imported cold chain food epidemic situation should strengthen the forward movement of the barrier. Imported cold-chain food needs a series of links such as entry, transportation, storage and sales, which has the characteristics of long circulation chain, wide scope and long time. In this process, the higher the implementation of epidemic prevention and control measures, the lower the effectiveness and cost of prevention and control. Therefore, it is necessary to move forward and strengthen source control.
Second, food producers and operators should strictly implement the main responsibility of epidemic prevention and control. Although COVID-19 is not a food-borne disease, it will affect food safety and put forward higher hygiene requirements for the safety of the whole food industry chain.
Third, the prevention and control of the epidemic situation must do a good job of "people" and "things". At present, the epidemic spread shows the characteristics of "from things to people" and "from people to people". Therefore, the prevention and control of epidemic situation should not only block the imported cases from abroad, but also strictly control the risks imported through logistics channels, especially cold chain logistics.
"Control from the source as much as possible, on the one hand, increase the inspection and quarantine of imported cold-chain foods and carry out proactive and preventive comprehensive disinfection work; On the other hand, strengthen the protection of occupational exposure population and the active screening of nucleic acid; In view of the fact that the environment of all international transportation in winter is similar to the cold chain system, while strengthening the disinfection of imported goods, employees should also do a good job of protection in accordance with the protective measures of relevant standards. " Li Ning said.
Covid-19 didn’t eat it, so don’t be afraid of frozen food?
Although there is evidence that the route of transmission in COVID-19 is not only from person to person, but also from person to person, according to Chen Junshi, academician of China Academy of Engineering and general consultant of National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center, the chance of this infection is very small for the general public. So far, there is no report that the general public has been infected by purchasing and preparing contaminated food. However, workers who carry imported goods are more likely to be infected through person-to-person transmission if preventive measures are not in place.
"COVID-19 is a respiratory infectious disease, not a food-borne disease. That is to say, it is not ‘ Food poisoning ’ , not ‘ Eat out of the disease ’ 。” Chen Junshi stressed.
He further explained that although the culprit in Covid-19 has not been found, it is certain that it is an animal-borne infectious disease similar to avian flu, not a food safety issue.
Chen Junshi therefore suggested that we should vigorously carry out popular science propaganda activities for scientific epidemic prevention, so that the general public can correctly understand the epidemic characteristics and transmission routes of COVID-19 — — "Not eaten", don’t be afraid to buy and prepare frozen food, including frozen seafood and frozen meat.
"In hundreds of thousands of food samples, the positive rate of nucleic acid detection is only 0.48 per ten thousand, that is, less than 5 out of 100,000 samples are positive. Moreover, this positive does not mean that the virus is alive, because the virus is still nucleic acid positive after death, so it is unnecessary to be afraid, but we still have to talk about some health and epidemic prevention methods. " Chen Junshi said.
He suggested that in order to prevent food from being contaminated by viruses and then cross-contamination in the food chain, the general public should follow the five elements of food safety of the World Health Organization: keeping clean, separating raw and cooked food, thoroughly cooking, preserving food at a safe temperature, and safe water and food raw materials.
"These five articles were originally intended to prevent food-borne diseases, but they can also be used to avoid cross-contamination in the food chain in Covid-19. After all, it is impossible for food to be completely free from virus pollution under the current situation. " Chen Junshi said.
He also specifically mentioned that food enterprises should strictly abide by the relevant norms issued by the government and attach importance to the protection of employees and the cleaning and disinfection of the production environment. Previously, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council issued a number of notices, including the guidelines for the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic situation in meat food processing enterprises, the virus environmental monitoring standards for farmers’ markets, and the retrospective nucleic acid detection of cold chain foods, etc. Chen Junshi said that as long as the document requirements are strictly followed, Covid-19 cross-contamination in the food chain can be largely prevented.
The primary health need in the post-epidemic era is to improve immunity?
The epidemic prevention and control in the past year has once again attracted people’s attention to one word: immunity.
"Immunity is not only related to the epidemic, but more importantly, it is related to health. Whether the human immunity is strong or not, the immune system is the key. " Ding Gangqiang, vice chairman of chinese institute of food science and technology and director of the Institute of Nutrition and Health of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said.
According to him, the human immune system mainly has three lines of defense: one is skin and mucosa; The second is the bactericidal substances and phagocytes in the body; The third is immune organs and immune cells. A good immune system is very important for survival. Once the human immune system declines, the human body is easily infected by viruses and causes various diseases.
"In terms of improving immunity, dietary nutrition is the material basis for ensuring the normal operation of the human immune system. Adhering to a balanced diet and achieving a good nutritional status are the basis and guarantee for enhancing immunity." Ding Gangqiang said that no food can provide all the nutrients needed by the human body, and diversified foods can obtain balanced nutrition.
As for the post-epidemic era, Ding Gangqiang said that the primary health need of the general public is to improve immunity. Many experts and scholars have suggested that the food industry will play an important role in meeting the health needs of the general public to improve their immunity. During the epidemic period, due to the limited food choices of the public in some areas, the intake of vitamins, minerals, high-quality protein from plants and essential fatty acids was insufficient, and the risk of malnutrition increased.
He suggested that we should be guided by national policies and the needs of the general public to improve the nutritional, healthy and high-quality supply capacity of food. In the post-epidemic era, foods that help to enhance immunity are bound to usher in a market opportunity. In view of the relatively single variety of such products at present, enterprises should continuously improve the supply capacity of food nutrition, health and high quality through scientific and technological innovation to meet the individualized and differentiated needs of different groups of people in nutrition and health.
"Improving immunity is a systematic work, and it can’t be done overnight, let alone ‘ Cramming for the Buddha ’ In daily life, the general public needs to firmly establish a healthy concept of balanced nutrition. In their diet, they should try their best to have diverse foods, mixed grains and beans, balanced eggs and milk, and sufficient fruits and vegetables to ensure a reasonable supply of nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. " Ding Gangqiang said.
He also emphasized that in addition to a reasonable diet, the public should also pay attention to ensuring adequate sleep, exercising moderately and maintaining a relaxed state of mind — — Lifestyle and psychological factors are also important factors affecting immunity.
Zhongqingbao Zhongqingwang reporter Qiu Chenhui Source: China Youth Daily
January 12, 2021, 12th edition