Uk scientists have discovered that the Covid 19 virus can reside on some ready-to-eat groceries for days.
The tests were made through smearing the virus on specific foods, including fruit, pastries, and bottled drinks.
The Foods Standards Agency (FSA) chose items that people might put in their mouth without cooking or washing.
According to a report released by the scientists, the risk posed by the virus on groceries was low as most food products tested had a “significant drop” in the levels of virus over the first 24 hours.
Some cases traces survived for about a week, the University of Southampton team found.
“Foods and packaging considered as part of this study were artificially inoculated with Sars-Cov-2 and therefore are not a reflection of contamination levels found on these foods at retail, and lower levels of contamination will require less time to decline to undetectable levels.”
“For a highly infectious agent such as Sars-Cov-2, which can be transmitted through touching contaminated surfaces and then the face, these findings are highly noteworthy,” part of the report stated.
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“The public may be interested in the finding that virus may persist in an infectious state, on foods and food packaging surfaces, for several days under certain common conditions.” the report read in part.
“This research gives us additional insight into the stability of coronavirus on the surfaces of a variety of foods and confirms that assumptions we made in the early stages of the pandemic were appropriate, and that the probability that you can catch Covid via food is very low.” Said Anthony Wilson, microbiological risk assessment team leader at the FSA.
Breathing in infected droplets, rather than touching infected surfaces, is still the main way people catch Covid.