Chinese healthcare authorities on Saturday reported that they have seized approximately thousand boxes of ice-cream after they tested positive for coronavirus, China Daily reports. Produced by the Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Company, the authorities believe that a little more than 1500 boxes have already been sold as they aim to track the packages.

The investigation kicked off when three samples of locally produced ice cream were found to be contaminated in the Tianjin municipality. The authorities are in the process of investigating 65 boxes that had been sold in the local market, the report said.

Out of the 1662 employees of the Tianjin Daqiaodao Food Company, 700 have already tested negative for COVID-19 while results for the remaining 962 employees remain to be confirmed. Residents who bought the ice creams have been asked to report their health and physical movements.

The authorities confirmed that each box contained six ice cream products which were made using milk powder from Ukraine and whey powder from New Zealand.

According to Sky News report. Dr. Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds in the UK, authorities have succeeded in confiscating some thousand batches of the product but it is believed that another few thousand boxes are in circulation. The popular belief says an infected person has contaminated the packages.

“It’s likely this has come from a person, and without knowing the details, I think this is probably a one-off. Of course, any level of contamination is not acceptable and always a cause for concern, but the chances are that this is the result of an issue with the production plant and potentially down to hygiene at the factory,” he said.

Griffin added that the cold temperature at which the ice cream was stored and the fact that it contains fat could explain why the virus survived on the samples tested.