With SARS continuing to cause fear around the city, local food markets are taking various precautions to ensure that any meat, fruit and vegetable sold in Shanghai are free of the virus.
To avoid any possible infections, food wholesalers have stopped importing food from hard-hit areas, such as Beijing and Guangdong Province, and are taking steps to prevent the virus spreading.
"Vegetables supplied on the local market are absolutely safe. At present, vegetables from hard-stricken areas aren't allowed to enter the city," said an officer with the Shanghai Vegetable Office. "All the transportation tools used to carry vegetables also have undergone complete disinfection."
The Cao'an Road Food Market, one of Shanghai's largest vegetable wholesalers, is disinfected twice every day. Owners of the market's 1,000 or so stalls are required to file a report on the health of their workers to the management office every day.
Vegetables traded in the market mainly come from Shandong Province, Shanghai's neighboring provinces and Shanghai itself. Out-of-town workers trans-porting vegetables are banned from entering the market, according to Chen Xinkang, manager of the market's vegetable department.
Similar to the vegetable market, sea food from Guangdong Province, which used to account for half of the supply at the Tongchuan Road Aquatic Products Market, is in scarce supply these days.
To guarantee supply, the market has introduced products from other cities and countries, such as shrimp from Thailand and fish from Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province.
Lichee lovers will have to do without the fruit for a few months, however, as the sweet succulent fruit, which is only grown in several southern provinces, isn't expected to reach local market until June, one month later than usual.
"To prevent the SARS virus from spreading via lichee transportation vehicles, we decided to postpone the supply," said Yi Feng of Shanghai Fruit Co Ltd. "We have suspended sending purchasers to Guangdong to inspect orchards, and so far no Guangdong supplier has come to the city, either."
Health experts suggest people peel the skin off of any fruit they intend to eat and avoid uncooked seafood for the sake of their health.
(eastday.com May 13, 2003)
