Staff members paste QR codes on imported cold chain food for traceable management at a regional cold chain center in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, Jan. 7, 2021. Photo: Xinhua

A Chinese nuclear company has finished research of the country's first installation used for disinfecting cold-chain food's outer package and is working on the project's implementation, the company's board secretary disclosed in response to an inquiry from investors. 

The company, namely the CGN Nuclear Technology Development Co (CGNNT), a subsidiary of China's state-owned nuclear power giant China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN), said that the company's project, which applies electron beam (E-beam) irradiation technology to fight against coronavirus on the outer package of cold-chain food has passed the review of expert group in March, 2021.  

The company is currently pushing for the landing of this pilot project, the person said. 

According to information sent by CGN to the Global Times on Monday, the project has carried out 11 batches of experiments on 190 samples, and found that 5-10 KGy E-beams are enough to kill live coronavirus viruses on the surface of filter paper, and the results won't turn positive after three generations of blind transmission.

It also noted that the device won't exert any negative impact on the safety of food or staff, and therefore has relatively good cold chain food treatment efficiency and virus killing effects. The aforementioned review group suggested that the device should be installed at real scenarios as soon as possible to speed up its usage.

Products including pet food and medical appliances will be radiated by the company's technology before they are exported. The sector's revenues account for about 18 percent of the company's entire sterilization and disinfection business.

The person made the reply after an investor raised a question on as to how the company has prepared for the follow-up development of the coronavirus pandemic. 

A number of coronavirus infections are found to happen on employees working in or related to the industry of imported cold-chain food. Starting from January 15, Beijing has reported 43 coronavirus cases, of which 37 are patients infected with Delta variants. The Delta variants cases are all linked to cold-chain products or relevant employees either directly or indirectly. 

China's Tsinghua University also noted earlier that it has worked with CGNNT on the E-beam irradiation technology. Up to February 14, 2021, the team has processed 105 batches of medical materials with radiation sterilization including surgical masks and medical protective clothing totaling 5.2 million pieces. 

According to a statement issued by the university, the radiation can kill viruses or pathogenic microorganisms and degrade toxic pollutants in waste water by using gamma rays, or high-energy electron beams generated by electron accelerators. 

Global Times