After the outbreak of the COVID-19, the General Administration of Customs has held 121 video conferences with their counterparts in 99 countries and regions and urged overseas food producers to strengthen their preventive measures against the disease. The GACC conducted remote spot checks on the implementation of FAO and WHO guidelines and the operation of the food management system by overseas competent departments and enterprises through the video inspection system. As of September 7, the GACC has conducted a total of 76 random inspections for meat, aquatic products, dairy products and frozen fruits enterprises in 30 countries (regions).

In addition, the GACC has taken timely risk prevention measures in response to the outbreak of infections in some cold chain food production enterprises in some countries (regions). As of September 7, China has halted imports from 56 cold-chain food manufacturers in 19 countries where employees had been infected with COVID-19, and 41 manufacturers have voluntarily suspended shipments to China.

The nation's customs authorities have been monitoring the risk of COVID-19 in imported cold chain foodstuffs, and as of September 7, the administration has taken over 500,000 samples from imported products, their packaging and the interior of containers; six samples have taken in Dalian and Xiamen, tested positive for the virus.

The GACC said that China Customs will continue to strengthen cooperation with the competent authorities of exporting countries (regions) to strengthen control at source, strictly prevent the import of cold chain food including meat from being contaminated by novel coronavirus and other toxic and harmful substances during production, processing, storage and transportation, strengthen risk monitoring at ports, crack down on illegal activities, ensure imported food safety, and actively promote trade facilitation. Importers will be urged to implement their responsibilities, actively carry out inspection of overseas exporters and overseas manufacturers, and strictly prohibit the import of products that do not comply with China's laws and regulations and national food safety standards, so as to ensure the safety of imported food and enhance consumer confidence.

China is a major meat importer, and so far, China has approved the import of seven types of meat products, including pork, beef, lamb, poultry, venison, horsemeat and donkey meat, from 2,020 enterprises in 38 countries (regions). China's total meat imports have risen from 2.972 million tons in 2014 to 6.178 million tons in 2019, an increase of 121.28 percent in five years. In the first eight months of this year, it imported 6.58 million tons, which has exceeded the total imports of last year.

Since 2019, based on the international animal disease status, the GACC has suspended the export of Polish poultry meat, Hungarian poultry meat, Irish beef and Kazakh lamb to China, taken measures such as cancelling or suspending the registration of 60 enterprises that failed to fulfill their main responsibilities, and implemented measures to return or destroy 169 batches of meat that do not meet China's food safety laws and regulations and national food safety standards.