Is the US food supply safe?
Anika H. Ahmed, MD
The COVID-19 pandemic spreads by person to person transmission through droplet infection. Close contact with any infective COVID-19 person can transmit the infectious Coronavirus leading to symptoms of COVID-19. Humans handle food and it goes through various hands of food industry workers before it makes it to the consumer. The outbreak of COVID-19 in a meat plant with 130 positive workers has given risen to a question whether the meat is safe. Is the food supply safe in the United States? Research indicates that COVID-19 does not directly spread through food. Consuming food that may have been handled by a positive COVID-19 does not directly lead to the disease. However, handling packages that may have been sprayed with Coronavirus through coughing or sneezing of a positive COVID-19 can lead to transmission of the Coronavirus to the hands of the consumers. In addition to different hard surfaces like doorknobs, elevator buttons, escalator railings, door handles, counter tops, and trolleys, Coronavirus can survive on plastic and paper for about 12 hours.
Maintaining the highest standards of hygiene on the consumer end is the key to controlling the pandemic. Anything brought into the house from outside, including food packages in the form of salad boxes, vegetable and fruit bags, milk cartons, cheese boxes, canned goods and cereal boxes must be wiped down. The best way to wipe down food packages is either with a wipe of rubbing alcohol or by spraying down with a disinfectant. This must be followed by frequent washing of hands for 20 seconds, wiping down of all counter tops used for placement of the food packages and wiping down of refrigerator shelves before putting the groceries away. This precaution may be time consuming but will be worth the effort to keep oneself protected from the Coronavirus.
On the other hand, outbreak of COVID-19 at a food processing and packaging plant does raise concerns. One positive case could lead to outbreak in the entire staff of the plant as it is rapidly transmitted from person to person. The deadly consequence of this spread could be contamination of packaging of the food. This contaminated package, if handled by consumers without precautions of sanitization of packages, frequent washing of hands and maintaining hygiene, will surely lead to greater spread of COVID-19. Due to the highly infectious nature of Coronavirus, it is better to assume that the package may have been contaminated with the virus at any point in the food chain supply going through multiple hands and follow the precautionary guidelines set by health authorities as explained above, in order to stay protected from COVID-19.