The market regulation bureau of Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone in Wuhan city, hardest-hit area of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, has since Feb 17 adopted a contactless food detection process, zone officials said.

The initiative in the zone -- which is also known as Optics Valley and located in Central China's Hubei province -- ensures the safety of food ingredients offered in the makeshift cabin hospital located there.

According to an official from the bureau, the food detection process mainly refers to actions taken by the food serving unit.

It initially provides daily recipes, from which the bureau determines which samples to test and then the food serving unit packs the food ingredients to be tested in an agreed location.

Then, a third-party testing agency obtains the samples for detection and publishes the results in a WeChat working group, without personnel contact throughout the whole process.

Local officials said that more than 10 kinds of food samples are tested every day and all the links and times taken during the detection process are accurately controlled, so as to ensure that the food is shipped to the cabin hospital and some isolation points in the zone in the shortest time.