Can coronavirus spread through food or packaging?
By Brie Stimson | Fox News
As the world social distances amid the coronavirus pandemic, it's difficult to completely disconnect when it comes to our food. At some point, the meals we get from the grocery store, restaurant takeout counter or farmers market could be handled by someone with the virus -- but can it transmit through food?
While there are a lot of unknowns with the novel virus, there’s no evidence of COVID-19 transmitting through food or packaging, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The main spread of the virus is believed to be person-to-person, including droplets that remain in the air after a sneeze or cough, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Unlike foodborne gastrointestinal (GI) viruses like norovirus and hepatitis A that often make people ill through contaminated food, SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, is a virus that causes respiratory illness. Foodborne exposure to this virus is not known to be a route of transmission,†the FDA says.
However, the virus could conceivably be spread by an infected food worker who doesn’t properly wash their hands after using the bathroom, according to Harvard Medical School’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
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