‘Totally catastrophic’: Global F&B authorities reacted with varying degrees of caution on China’s coronavirus crisis
Food and beverage authorities and industries worldwide were taking steps to prevent spreading or ‘importing’ the coronavirus into their countries, with some taking a more aggressive approach than others.
The coronavirus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, was first identified in Wuhan, China where most of the victims so far have been located. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak to be a global health emergency last month.
In response to the crisis, authorities in several countries have acted to ban the import of food items from China. One of these was Indonesia, which started with the ban of live animal imports from the country and is set to release a list of other banned food items soon.
“We will obviously stop live animals imports from China and are still considering banning other products,” Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto said in a media briefing after a government meeting about the virus.
