* Shenzhen authorities identify COVID-19 traces in Brazil chicken
* Virus also found on frozen shrimp from Ecuador
* WHO, FDA say no evidence food is source of infection (Adds context)
By Roxanne Liu, David Stanway and Jake Spring
BEIJING/SHANGHAI/BRASILIA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Two cities in China have found traces of the new coronavirus in cargoes of imported frozen food, local authorities said on Thursday, although the World Health Organization downplayed the risk of the virus entering the food chain.
A sample taken from the surface of frozen chicken wings imported into the southern city of Shenzhen from Brazil, as well as samples of outer packaging of frozen Ecuadorian shrimp sold in the northwestern city of Xian, have tested positive for the virus, local Chinese authorities said.
Shenzhen authorities identified the chicken as originating from a plant owned by Aurora, Brazil's third-largest poultry and pork exporter.
As confirmed COVID-19 cases continue to rise globally, the discoveries raise fresh concerns that the coronavirus that causes the disease can spread on surfaces and enter the foodchain. A day earlier, officials started investigating whether the first COVID-19 cases in New Zealand in more than three months were imported by freight.
Viruses can survive up to two years at temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius, but scientists and officials say there is no strong evidence so far the coronavirus can spread via frozen food.
"People should not fear food, food packaging or delivery of food," the World Health Organization's head of emergencies programme Mike Ryan told a briefing.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture Department said in a joint statement "there is no evidence that people can contract COVID-19 from food or from food packaging."
Brazil's Aurora, which is unlisted, said it had not been formally notified by the Chinese authorities of the alleged contamination. The company said it takes all possible measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and there is no evidence it is spread through food. Brazil's agriculture ministry said it was seeking clarification from Chinese authorities.
Reuters could not immediately reach the Ecuadorean embassy in Beijing.
Shenzhen's health authorities traced and tested everyone who might have come into contact with potentially contaminated food products, and all results were negative, the city's notice said.
"It is hard to say at which stage the frozen chicken got infected," said a China-based official at a Brazilian meat exporter.