Many restaurants are permitted to stay open during the COVID-19 outbreak to serve takeout food, but … [+] is it safe to eat? (Photo by Zhao Jun/China News Service via Getty Images)
As businesses are shuttered all over the world, chefs in restaurants are continuing to cook meals for the public, healthcare workers and those in vital services, with their restaurants allowed to stay open while other places are forced to close. But is there any chance of becoming sick with COVID-19 from eating takeout foods?
“There is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted by eating food. I imagine that if this is possible, the risk is extremely low,” said Angela L. Rasmussen, PhD, a virologist in the faculty of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, adding that she is not aware of any human coronaviruses that can be transmitted through food.
Current recommendations to prevent the spread of coronavirus are frequent hand washing and avoiding touching the face, to reduce the chance of any virus present reaching the respiratory tract. Such practices are routine among properly trained chefs anyway, even without the current coronavirus pandemic and another recent Forbes article discussed extra measures that chefs and restaurants are taking to keep patrons safe during the outbreak.
But even if coronavirus does somehow make its way into your food, despite these precautions, are you at risk of getting it? There seems to be a number of points throughout cooking and eating food which seem to make this unlikely, so let’s go through them.
First of all, can heat from cooking inactivate viruses should they get into the food?
“Heat almost certainly inactivates the virus, although studies have not been done to my knowledge describing the specific temperatures or durations at those temperatures at which inactivation occurs,” said Rasmussen.
Most of our favorite takeaways, from pizza to stir fries are cooked at very high temperatures, but what about cold food?
“We don’t have any data on this. Although hot food is less likely to have infectious virus present depending on the temperature of the food, risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 through eating any food is extremely low. Food is not inhaled into the respiratory tract and any virus present will likely be inactivated in the stomach,” said Rasmussen.
Although it may be hard to stomach, even the most well-prepared food, either at home or prepared by restaurants, can contain some microbes that could be potentially harmful to health, but these only rarely get us sick as people have an in-built defense against this – stomach acid.
“High acidity, low pH environments such as the stomach can both disrupt the envelope and degrade viral proteins and RNA that are other key components of the virus particle,” said Rasmussen.
But, like many things currently, getting takeout is not completely risk-free, but this risk can be reduced even further by following recommended CDC guidelines on hand washing and disinfecting outer packaging on takeaway containers.
There are, however, certainly some viruses which can be transmitted through food and make us sick. Norovirus outbreaks are famous for shutting down restaurants, hotels and particularly cruise ships. Although the coronavirus has definitely spread on cruise ships, there is no current evidence that this was through food. So what are the differences between coronaviruses and noroviruses?
“The SARS-Cov-2 virus and norovirus are different viruses with different outside components. The coronavirus capsid (or protein shell) is surrounded by a lipid envelope that can be dissolved relatively easily by soap and water,” said Mary K. Estes, Ph.D, Professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas who researches gastrointestinal viruses. “Noroviruses have a capsid without a lipid envelope,” she added, meaning they are not as easily combated by soap and water.
Norovirus is mainly thought to spread through fecal-to-oral transmission and there have been some cases where the coronavirus has been detected in the feces of those infected, so does this pose a risk?
“Both infectious virus and viral RNA have been detected in the stool of some—but not all—patients. This means there is a possibility of fecal transmission. However, it’s critical to note that there is no evidence that fecal transmission has occurred, much less is an important driver of transmission,” said Rasmussen.
The high standard of food safety training for chefs and people who prepare food should mean that they are better than most of us at ensuring hand hygiene, but there are also other differences between the viruses which mean that coronaviruses are far-less likely to pose a risk from consuming food than noroviruses.
“Noroviruses are much more stable viruses [than coronaviruses] and remain on surfaces for quite long periods of time in the environment and in food. Both of these viruses will be killed in cooked food so eating well cooked, hot food should be safe,” said Estes.
“Fecal transmission risks, while likely already low, can be further reduced by practicing good hand hygiene and taking droplet precautions,” said Rasmussen.