With news about COVID-19 being detected on food, such as frozen chicken wings and fish, you may be wondering if you can actually get the coronavirus from food or food packaging. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now officially weighs a little clarity and reassurance.
The FDA, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agree that there is “no credible evidence of food or food packaging related to or as a likely source of viral transmission.” “No, and the risk of contracting COVID-19 in this way is” extremely low, “according to an FDA announcement by Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock, MD and Acting USDA Secretary Kevin Shea.
This is not a new position for the FDA, but the agency strongly confirms its previous findings. “Consumers should be reassured that we continue to believe, based on our understanding of currently available reliable scientific information, and supported by an overwhelming international scientific consensus,” the statement read, “that the foods that are highly unlikely they eat and food packaging they touch spreads SARS-CoV-2, ‘the virus that causes COVID-19.
The agency’s position is based on data from the US, as well as food safety agencies in the UK and New Zealand and researchers worldwide. “Despite the billions of meals and food parcels that have been handled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to date there has been no evidence that food, food packaging or food handling is a source or important transmission route for SARS-CoV-2. leading to COVID-19, “the International Food Microbiological Specifications Commission (ICMSF) wrote in a September 2020 opinion piece, quoted by the FDA.
You may remember a few headlines from last year about the virus being detected in frozen foods. Chinese health authorities detected traces of SARS-CoV-2 on frozen chicken wings in August 2020 and the live virus on frozen cod packaging in October 2020. But no real cases have been linked to the frozen food.
Experts thought it was an unlikely scenario at the time, reports SELF. This is partly because COVID-19 is mainly spread by respiratory droplets and small particles that are expelled by humans with the infection, while the spread of fomite (when the virus spreads via particles on surfaces) is less common. And, as SELF reported, experts and authorities on infectious diseases such as the CDC have said that the virus is unlikely to be present in large enough quantities – and will survive on the surface long enough – to actually infect anyone.
“Since the number of virus particles that could theoretically be picked up by touching a surface would be very small and the amount needed for infection by oral inhalation would be very high,” the FDA explains, “the chance of infection by touching the surface of food packaging or eating food is considered extremely low. ‘
Of course, this is not the same as having evidence of COVID-19 being contracted in this way, by having no food or food packaging. impossible. But the FDA says that this type of transfer is extremely unlikely given the large amount of data we have at this stage. And as the FDA noted, there were more than 100 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and no epidemiological evidence or surveillance data linking an outbreak to food or food packaging.
We probably have the nature of the COVID-19 transfer to thank for that – as well as the fact that food operations are supposed to follow safety and hygiene precautions based on FDA regulations. While it’s just as good an idea as washing your hands before eating, you no longer have to stress about picking up your groceries. Your efforts are likely to be better spent on masking and social distance.
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Originally appeared on SELF