By Zhang Yanli
It is a daily routine for many people to buy at a small food market. Under the circumstance of the regular epidemic control, what will small food markets in Hongkou do in autumn and winter when infectious diseases and infection easily appear? Can citizens purchase safe imported cold chain food?
The agri-products markets: building the 4 mechanisms
According to introduction of the District Commerce Committee, as the main channel for supply of primary and secondary food in Hongkou, agri-products markets have always tightened the epidemic prevention and control while ensuring the supply of primary and secondary food markets according to the “Implementation Scheme of Epidemic Prevention and Control in Agri-product Markets” and other documents.
Under the guidance of the District Commerce Committee, 4 mechanisms have formed for the regular epidemic prevention and control. All agri-products markets have established working groups to improve the guarantee mechanism of emergency plan and ensure the orderly and effective implementation of all measures on the epidemic prevention and control in autumn and winter. In addition, with the establishment of the publicity and guidance mechanism, efforts have been made to publicize requirements of the epidemic prevention and control in various ways, guide operators to improve their protection awareness and ability and implement various measures, in a bid to form a joint force for the epidemic prevention and control; meanwhile, the markets implement inspection and improvement mechanisms, organize specialized personnel to carry out regular inspections, find problems and correct them in time, and continuously improve the epidemic prevention and control; besides, they adhere to the personnel sorting and reporting system, timely report the people who come to Shanghai and return to Shanghai from medium-risk and high-risk areas in the country, and promptly handle and report abnormities and emergencies.
There are many people going in and out of the agri-products markets every day. Therefore, it is very important to strengthen the disinfection. In strict accordance with relevant sanitation regulations, on the basis of daily cleaning and disinfection, the markets in Hongkou comprehensively disinfect business premises and relevant facilities once a week, with a focus on garbage cans, toilets, passageways, meat and aquatic products, timely remove the market garbage, measure body temperatures for market managers and operators and urge them to wear masks.
The special inspection on cold-chain food
For the cold chain food widely concerned, since November 13, 2020, the District Market Supervision Bureau has conducted a comprehensive inspection on cold storages within the jurisdiction. Through the comprehensive inspection, key inspection, sampling inspection and other methods, the bureau thoroughly inspected cold storage food, and purchase and sales records. “The key inspection points are nucleic acid detection report and outer package disinfection certificate of imported cold chain food”, said an official of the Bureau. So far, 311 refrigerators of various types have been inspected, and cold storage inspection and supervision have been covered on the whole. Next, the bureau will accelerate the establishment of transit inspection warehouses (regions) of qualified enterprise-owned cold storages, and continue to strengthen supervision on imported cold chain food.
Since November 16, the bureau has carried out special supervision and inspection on the epidemic prevention and control of cold chain food enterprises in some hotels, supermarkets and other units within its jurisdiction. On the spot, the inspectors reviewed purchase records and vouchers, and checked tehoperation and disinfection of relevant cold storages.
The novel coronavirus nucleic acid sampling detection work for the cold chain food and the environment is in progress. According to the actual situation of Hongkou, the bureau focuses on the sampling and testing of imported fresh food and frozen aquatic products, livestock and poultry products’ environment. According to the characteristic of repeated outbreaks in autumn and winter, in the first stage, it will carry out sampling and testing of novel coronavirus nucleic acid in large hotels, shopping malls, and medium-sized and larger catering units from November 2020 to January 2021. Up to now, the bureau has sampled 14 relevant food enterprises and collected 140 samples, and test results are all negative.
The bureau introduces that while improving the nucleic acid testing of cold chain food, it continues to strengthen the legal supervision on cold chain food, cement the risk control of cold chain food storages and transactions, check certificates of cold chain food and carry out on-site inspections, urge the enterprises to perform the obligation of traceability and comprehensive disinfection for cold chain food, and encourage and guide food business units to carry out nucleic acid testing for cold chain food, in a bid to promote the social co-governance pattern of food safety.