b'6American Journal of Transportation ajot.comConcerns about virus on food importsCarrier pods monitored by Sensitech are real, expert says provide mobile cold storage solutions There is a real risk of cross-borderless steel, which it grows on, he said.for COVID-19 vaccine distributioncoronavirus transmission through theIts cold, its crowdedits noisy so $1.5 trillion global agri-food market,the people have to yell. New Carrier Pods monitored byAdditionally,themobilityofCarrier according to a scientist who has stud- Sensitech combine leading refrigera- Pods monitored by Sensitech provides ied the phenomenon. c hInas cares tion technology and cargo monitoringpharmaceuticalcompanies,distribu-ItispossiblethatcontaminatedEarlier this month, authorities incapabilities to help address the uniquetioncenters,retailersandvaccine foodimportscantransferthevirustheeasternChinesecoastalcityofchallenges of COVID-19 vaccine dis- administrators with flexibility to move toworkersaswellastheenviron- Qingdao said they found live SARS- tribution. Customers can expand theirvaccine storage to other locations.ment, said Dale Fisher, an infectiousCoV-2onimportedfrozenseafood,cold storage capacity along with addedMaintainingthetemperature diseasesphysicianatSingaporeswith two port workers responsible forcargo visibility to help ensure the lifeintegrityofvaccinesiscritical.Our National University Hospital. Frozen- unloading the refrigerated packagingof vaccines. Carrier and Sensitech aremobile storage solutions for vaccines foodmarketsarethoughttobeonetesting positive for the virus. partofCarrierGlobalCorporation,andotherperishablesusereliable, harbor in the first part of a chain ofChinahassaidseveraltimesinaleadingglobalproviderofhealthy,industry-leadingtechnologieswith transmission, he added. recent months that imported refriger- safe and sustainable building and coldprecise temperature control, premium Its hitching a ride on the food,ated goods are risks for re-introducingchain solutions. airflowandoperationalefficiency, infectingthefirstpersonthatopensthecoronavirusintothecountry.ItBringingtogetherCarriersdem- said Kartik Kumar, vice president and the box, Fisher, who also chairs thesubsequently banned imported prod- onstratedcontainerrefrigerationgeneralmanager,GlobalContainer Global Outbreak Alert and Responseucts, including seafood from Indone- offeringswithSensitechsadvancedRefrigeration, Carrier. Network,saidinaninterview.ItssiaandchickenwingsfromBrazil,monitoring solutions provides custom- Carrier Pods monitored by Sensi-not to be confused with supermarketfollowingpositivetestsonshippingers today with options for deep-freezetechareavailableinconfigurations shelves getting infected. Its really atcontainers and food packaging. cooling, real-time telematics, data ana- thatcomplywithGoodDistribution the marketplace, before theres been aA June outbreak in Beijing trig- lytics and product visibility. CarriersPracticeguidelinesforpharmaceuti-lot of dilution. gered a nationwide boycott of salmonrecentlyannouncedLynxdigitalcalproductsandaddressstringent In recent months China has been(CONCERNScontinued onplatform is expected to provide addedregulatorytemperatureverification vocalaboutfindingtracesofthepage 7) connectivitybytheendoftheyear.requirements for vaccines. SARS-CoV-2 pathogen on packaging and food, raising fears that imported items are linked to recent virus resur-gences.Beijinghasorderedarange of precautionary steps, creating major disruptions with its trading partners.While such transmission remains afreakishevent,thescaleofthe global food trade is such that it will occur a few times out of millions of imports and exports, said Fisher.t wos chools Its a theory that has been down-played by the World Health Organiza-tionandsomewesternnations. The WHO has said recent evidence of epi-demiology shows that its unlikely thattheviruscouldbetransmitted from the surfaces to human respira-tory systems, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also stated it isnt aware of any evidence to suggest the disease can spread through food.OutsideChina,whereauthori-ties are increasingly weighing in the possibility that the virus can be car-ried and transmitted via food packag-ing,thetheoryisbarelymentioned or discussed. Fisher is one of the few international experts who studies the seeding of outbreaks in contaminated fresh and frozen food.Theres two schools of thought and the minority view which I adhere to is that theres a lot of circumstan-tial evidence, Fisher said. A lot of peoplemaybeagainstthisbecause they dont want to scare the worldthe food could be a source.ExperimentsdonebyFishers teamshowthecoronaviruscould survive in the time and temperatures associatedwithtransportationand storage conditions used in the interna-tional food trade. The study published in Augustshowednoweakeningof the infectious virus after 21 days at standard food refrigeration and freez-ing temperatures when the pathogen wasaddedtosamplesofchicken, salmon and pork.Thefactthatthevirustendsto thrive in cold and dry environments has made cold-storage facilities ideal spacesforthepathogentospread. Meatpackingplantsandabattoirs, instead of schools and churches, are more likely to be hot spots for Covid-19 outbreaks, according to Fisher.Its because theres a lot of stain-'