On April 16, the US Food and Drug Administration released a statement on Twitter that wiping your groceries and takeouts are not necessary. There is currently no evidence that suggests that the virus can be transmitted through food packaging.
One of the scientists, Jamie Lloyd-Smith, who worked on the only study to analyze how long COVID-19 might remain on various surfaces said that despite the fact that his research found the virus might live on cardboard for up to 24 hours and metal and plastic for two to three days, he does not bother to wipe down his own groceries or takeout.
Lloyd-Wright stated that he do not treat his hands as potentially contaminated while he handles the groceries and unpacking them and he makes sure that he washes his hands fully when he is done with that process.
Dr. John Williams, a virologist, said that he has studied coronaviruses for decades and he is also not overly concerned. He said that he is also not wiping down the containers from the restaurant because the odds of someone coming along and depositing enough virus on a grocery item or takeout container are pretty low.
Lloyd-Smith added that his advice might change if the person was at high risk from the virus, such as the immunocompromised and the elderly. He said that one reasonable and easy-to-implement precaution for groceries that do not need refrigeration is simply to let them sit for a day or more before unpacking them. This will reduce the level of any contamination that is present.
How did people get concerned about groceries and takeouts?
The concern over virus transmission through surfaces began in late March after the study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine stated that under certain conditions in the laboratory, COVID-19 is detectable for up to three hours in aerosols, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel. The experiment did not account for other factors that could help to inactivate the virus such as disinfectants or sunlight or look at varying levels of virus, so there is no magic in the numbers that were found.
Benjamin Chapman, a food safety expert and a professor in the department of agricultural and human sciences at North Carolina State University agreed with Lloyd-Smith. He said that there is no magic number in this because temperature matters, humidity matters and how much virus was put there in the surface matters.
Washing hands is key
Experts say that if you want to disinfect, you must start with properly washing or sanitizing your hands after going out. Instead of worrying about how long the virus will persist and spraying everything down or wiping it down with sanitizer, you can manage this unlikely route with low risk and make it even lower by just practicing properly good hand washing, according to Chapman, or you can use hand sanitizers once you have returned home from the grocery store or after you got takeout food.
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