Can COVID-19 Live on Food Packaging?
COVID-19 is known to be transmittable through person-to-person contact. Still, it was discovered that the virus can stay active on several different surfaces, and those include food packaging according to a recently published health article.
Panic buying became one of the most significant concerns across the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. People go to different stores and touch food items that were previously touched by other people. This behavior is one of the reasons there has been a spike in COVID-19 cases.
The following are recommendations and suggestions from experts on how to limit your exposure to COVID-19 while you are in a grocery store:
LIMIT YOUR TRIPS AND GO WHEN STORES ARE LESS CROWDED
Grocery stores are one of the most crowded places today. It would be safe to consider that there might be at least one person, or a couple of people, who are asymptomatic and have not yet visited a doctor.
Experts advise that a person should limit going to the grocery stores to once every two weeks. When you go the grocery stores make sure that you buy foods that are more than enough for two weeks. Put at the top of your list dry goods, frozen foods, canned fruits, and vegetables.
They also advised avoiding shopping during peak-hours to prevent a large number of persons. Try also to check if the grocery stores scheduled a time for older people and immunocompromised. Most of all, always observe stringent social distancing or six feet from other shoppers.
CLEAN YOUR HANDS AND DISINFECT YOUR CART
Always consider that the one who previously used the cart could be COVID-19 positive. Through this, you will be conscious to always observe cleanliness most, especially in going to grocery stores.
Elizabeth Eckstrom, Professor and chief of geriatrics at Oregon Health and Science University, said: "As soon as you get there, use hand sanitizer, and only touch what you need to touch. Wipe down your cart handle, and then use the hand sanitizer again."
Julia Marcus, an infectious disease epidemiologist, and professor in the department of population medicine at Harvard Medical School, also added that shoppers should avoid touching their phones while in the grocery stores or to wipe them immediately to prevent possible contamination.
Is it necessary to use gloves inside the grocery store?
Marcus answered: "Generally, when we use gloves outside of the healthcare setting and just in the community, they tend to become like a second skin. We end up touching our faces, and they may actually make us feel like we're not at risk, but they can become contaminated and may actually be a better surface for the virus to persist on than our own skin."
YOU DON'T NEED TO SANITIZE YOUR FOOD
Recent research shows that the virus can survive on cardboard for 24 hours and 72 hours on plastic. However, these viruses quickly decline as time goes by.
It is not recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to disinfect food packaging. Instead, it is best to wash your hands thoroughly after handling any items.
For this reason, Marcus said: "At this point, there's no evidence that transmission is happening through food packaging. That said, we know the virus can remain viable on surfaces for hours or even days, so there's a possible risk of transmission through touching a contaminated surface and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Better than disinfecting, the thing we keep saying over and over again is just to wash your hands."
However, Donald Schaffner, a food microbiologist at Rutgers University, had this to say regarding Marcus' statement:
"Right now, there's no evidence that [the virus is] spread through food. There's no evidence that it's spread through food packaging. That doesn't mean that we might not learn new evidence tomorrow that would change our thoughts on that, but right now, that's what we believe."
Moreover, experts advised that food like fresh fruits and vegetables should only be washed thoroughly by water and not with soap or any other disinfectants.
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