As global restrictions ease post the Coronavirus pandemic, a number of new health concerns have begun to spring up. Recent reports stating that Chinese cities had found traces of Coronavirus on a batch of Frozen chicken wings from Brazil as well as on the outer packaging of frozen Ecuadorian shrimp. This raised questions about whether or not frozen food and food packaging could give the virus a new way of spreading. However, health authorities and officials have clarified that there is no evidence of Coronavirus spreading through the medium of food.
"People should not fear food, or food packaging or processing or delivery of food," WHO head of emergencies programme Mike Ryan told a briefing in Geneva. "There is no evidence that food or the food chain is participating in transmission of this virus. And people should feel comfortable and safe." WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said China had tested hundreds of thousands of packages and "found very, very few, less than 10" proving positive for the virus.
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Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states on its website, "Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that handling food or consuming food is associated with COVID-19." Coronavirus is primarily a respiratory virus which spreads directly from person to person via exchange of droplets as the CDC states. Thus, there is no need to panic or spread misinformation around the spread of Covid-19 from food since there is no evidence in the same respect.
However, it is important to maintain good hygiene while handling food and food packaging. One must always wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before preparing food or after handling food packaging.