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There is " no credible grounds " that SARS - CoV-2 , the virus that make COVID-19 , is air through contaminated food or food promotion , according to a statementjust release by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) .
The statement follow a news group discussion held by the World Health Organization ( WHO ) last week , during which scientists number stock-still packages of solid food as a potential source ofcoronavirustransmission , NPR reported . The link or lack therefrom between food and coronavirus counterpane also has import for image out the descent of the coronavirus eruption and laterpandemic , which seems to have started in Wuhan , China .
Disease ecologist Peter Daszak , a member of the WHO team investigating the origins of thepandemic , said that the squad is " attempt to keep an open mind " about what activate the early COVID-19 superspreader result at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan . In recent months , Chinese state medium has advertize a theory that the coronavirus first emerged elsewhere and that it hitched a ride on quick-frozen food sold at the market , Reuters reported . And China has also blamed fixed intellectual nourishment imports for a spate of new infections , saying several software system have try out positive for the virus , The Wall Street Journal reported .
The seafood market outbreak was most likely tie to a live creature at the grocery , or an infected vendor or customer , but the WHO squad has n’t discount frozen meat and seafood as another potential source of infection , Daszak said , according to NPR .
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Although the WHO team is still debate this theoretical route of transmission , the FDA just threw cold water on that notion , reiterating that the risk of plunk up SARS - CoV-2 from food or food packaging " is exceedingly low . " The coronavirus chiefly spreads from person - to - person in droplets that spray from the mouth and nose , Live Science previously report .
" It ’s particularly important to note that COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that is spread from person to person , unlike foodborne or gastrointestinal viruses , such asnorovirusandhepatitis Athat often make people ill through polluted intellectual nourishment , " Dr. Janet Woodcock , the FDA ’s Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs , write in the statement .
The FDA , U.S. Department of Agriculture and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention base this assessment on research conductedbyvariouscountriesthroughout the pandemic , Woodcock wrote . She also take note that there ’s an " international consensus " about the depleted risk of exposure of transmission system from nutrient and food packaging , and that no internal or international surveillance system have feel a link between food products and COVID-19 transmission .
" Considering the more than 100 million cases of COVID-19 , we have not seen epidemiologic evidence of solid food or solid food promotional material as the source of SARS - CoV-2 transmission to humans , " she wrote .
Chinese scientist did link frozen food to a COVID-19 irruption at the Xinfadi Market in Beijing last summertime , after finding the coronaviruson a frozen codfishand inside its packaging , NPR reported . However , finding the virus on intellectual nourishment and promotional material does n’t provide lineal evidence that humans can pick up enough virus from a contaminated product to actually contract COVID-19 , Woodcock pen .
In increase , the coronavirus showcase linked to the Xinfadi Market occurred in warehouse workers and dock-walloper who had handled tremendous , external shipments of quick-frozen gist and seafood , NPR reported . " China has n’t had any report of consumer , of even suspicion , of consumers being infect by this route , " microbiologist Emanuel Goldman of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School told NPR .
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In the warehouse - size Xinfadi Market , wintry food make it in massive pallets , which likely remain cold for recollective than a single package of Pisces would at the grocery fund , Goldman say . The haunting cold could theoretically help preserve the virus and jolly raise the risk of transmission system for storage warehouse workers , he said .
But even under these fate , the risk of infection from frozen food would still be miniscule , Goldman enjoin . " It ’s so rare as to be of negligible grandness in the real world to most people , " he enounce .
To become septic , a person would require to inhale a large number of live coronavirus corpuscle ; but the number of particles that would likely be picked up from contaminated food or packages would be very minuscule , according to the FDA statement .
In any instance , basic personal hygiene and food safety measures can cut any risk of SARS - CoV-2 transmittance from food or packages , Live Science previously describe . This include washing your hands before handle nutrient and gargle off fresh garden truck with water ; you could also wash your hands after plow solid food packaging or takeout bag , to be extra dependable .
Originally published on Live Science .
