What you need to know about Covid-19 and frozen foods

Scientists are seriously investigating whether refrigerated and frozen meat may be contaminated with the coronavirus that causes covid-19. New Zealand and Chinese officials even speculated that imported frozen foods could be behind recent local incidents, but at the moment there is good evidence that someone is infected from food handling. there is no.

On Tuesday, New Zealand health officials said exclude Frozen food has triggered a recent resurgence of the covid-19 cases that are there. new Investigation But released this week, we discovered that the coronavirus survives and can remain infectious on refrigerated and frozen meat surfaces for at least 21 days. Still, because of the virus it can Surviving in a particular situation does not necessarily mean it is transmitted that way.

The new coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, is released from the mouth and nose of an infected person and then spreads primarily through infectious droplets and aerosols inhaled by another person. However, early in the pandemic, subfamily exposure (touching a recently contaminated surface and then the mouth, eyes, or nose) was also considered to be an important route of transmission. However, today it is believed that the risk of catching fomites via mold 19 is relatively low compared to close contact with infected people. The World Health Organization states that there is no particular evidence that food was a source of infection during the pandemic, either by eating or touching contaminated food.

However, at the same time, Chinese health authorities reported finding traces of the virus in frozen food packages, Theoretically Frozen imported food from Europe could have been the first spark of the epidemic, a new case in Beijing recently emerged, almost two months after the last documented outbreak in the city. Countries like Vietnam and New Zealand Experienced A small new cluster of covid-19 raised the question of how they started after a longer period of unreported local transmissions.

The case that frozen foods are the route of transmission of covid-19 is entirely context-sensitive at the moment, and all these recent outbreaks have been rigorous restrictions and quarantine measures for travelers enacted in countries such as New Zealand. May have been caused by a violation of. In China, for example, there may be political incentives for authorities to blame external parties such as meat imported from Europe in recent outbreaks. But this new study, released on the preprint website biorxiv, seems to show that it is possible, at least in theory.

Researchers in Singapore and Ireland conducted relatively simple experiments in the lab. They added a viable and infectious virus to frozen debris of salmon, chicken and pork taken from a local supermarket in Singapore. They then stored the meat in the refrigerator or freezer and periodically sampled it for the next 21 days to test for infectious viruses. Meat was stored at temperatures of 39 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius), -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 degrees Celsius), and -112 degrees Fahrenheit (-80 degrees Celsius).

Over all conditions, researchers found that virus levels remained about the same throughout the study. They conclude that if a person handles meat and touches their mouth or nose, the virus is still capable of infecting people with both refrigerated and frozen foods. (The case of covid-19 is not associated with consuming contaminated food.)

“Our laboratory studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 can withstand the time and temperature associated with shipping and storage conditions associated with international food trade,” they wrote.

Such preprint surveys do not go through the traditional peer review process. This does not mean that the findings are inaccurate (it does not mean that what is peer-reviewed is definitely correct), but for now it requires careful skepticism. And, as the authors acknowledge, the results do not suggest that many people get covid-19 by touching frozen foods.

However, even rare infection events can cause problems in containing the virus if it is highly likely to contain it. we I already know Food processing plants are a covid-19 outbreak hotspot, partly because working conditions and many of the people employed there live in communities where exposure to the virus is already common. Because there is. Therefore, there is certainly the potential for food workers to get infected and contaminate food. As food is shipped internationally, it is also possible that contaminated food could reach people in more isolated countries.

“The international food market is huge, and even very rare events can be expected to occur from time to time,” the authors write.

This theoretical transmission risk of covid-19 needs to be further investigated before confirming its existence. But if so, it emphasizes the need to keep vulnerable food workers as safe from viruses as possible. For consumers the author wrote, the same precautions that we should have already taken may still apply: wash your hands after touching uncooked foods and make sure you eat everything Please cook properly.