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With information about COVID-19 detected on foods, like frozen chicken wings and fish, you may be wondering if you can actually catch the coronavirus from food items or food packaging. Now the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is officially stepping in with some clarity and some assurance.
The FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) all agree that there is “no credible evidence of associated food or food packaging or as a likely source of viral transmission “and the risk of contracting COVID-19 in this way is” extremely low, “according to an FDA announcement from Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock MD and Acting USDA Secretary Kevin Shea.
This is not a new position for the FDA, but the agency firmly affirms its previous findings. “Consumers should be reassured that we continue to believe, based on our understanding of the reliable scientific information currently available, and supported by an overwhelming international scientific consensus,” the statement said, “that food is very unlikely to be they consume and the food packaging they touch spread SARS-CoV-2, “the virus that causes COVID-19.
The agency’s position is based on data from the United States as well as food safety agencies in the United Kingdom and New Zealand and researchers around the world. “Despite the billions of meals and food packages 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 a major route of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 resulting in COVID-19, ”wrote the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) in a September 2020 opinion piece, cited by the FDA.
Now you might remember some headlines from last year on finding the virus on frozen foods. Chinese health officials detected traces of SARS-CoV-2 on frozen chicken wings in August 2020, and the live virus on packages of frozen cod in October 2020. But no real cases have been linked to frozen foods. .
Experts thought it was an unlikely scenario at the time, SELF reported. This is in part because COVID-19 is spread primarily through respiratory droplets and tiny particles expelled by infected people, while fomite transmission (when the virus spreads via particles on surfaces) appears to be less common. . And, as SELF has reported, infectious disease experts and authorities like the CDC have said that the virus is unlikely to be present in large enough amounts – and to survive on the surface long enough – to actually infect a person. no one.
“Since the number of viral particles that could theoretically be picked up by touching a surface would be very low and the amount needed for oral inhalation infection would be very high,” says the FDA, “the chances of infection by touching the surface area of food packaging or food consumption is considered extremely low. “
Of course, not having proof of viral infection through food or food packaging is not the same as having proof that contracting COVID-19 this way is. impossible. But the FDA says this type of transmission is extremely unlikely given the large amount of data we have at this point. And as the FDA points out, there have been over 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 to thank the nature of COVID-19 transmission for this, as well as the fact that food business operations are supposed to follow safety and health precautions based on FDA regulations. So while washing your hands before eating is a good idea, you don’t have to worry about wiping up groceries and take out. Your efforts are probably best spent on masking and social distancing.
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Originally appeared on SELF
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