Frozen Chicken Wings Tested Positive for Coronavirus

We have some unappetizing news: Disease control centers in China have detected the coronavirus on frozen chicken wings, consistent with Reuters. Officials didn’t disclose which brand of wings was involved, but they did state that the shipment came from Brazil, which has the second-highest rate of COVID-19 infection within the world. Brazil currently has 3.4 million confirmed cases, consistent with Johns Hopkins University. The country’s case numbers are only behind those of the US , which has 5.4 million confirmed cases at press time.

This isn’t the primary time reports have circulated about food or food packaging testing positive for the coronavirus. A few days before the chicken-wing news brokeout, China reported that shrimp packaging also tested positive.

So do you have to be eyeing your fridge with suspicion? Experts don’t think so, a minimum of not supported the present science surrounding COVID-19 and food.

“Currently there's no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 related to food,” consistent with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. Now, it’s certainly possible we’ll learn more—the CDC has indeed issued faulty guidance before, and its page on food and COVID-19 was last updated on June 22. “Either it’s difficult to urge infected that way or the precautions we’ve been taking as a rustic , world, et cetera are sufficient.”

Why? For starters, experts believe that contaminated objects (including food and packaging) aren’t the most mode of COVID-19 transmission. As you've got (hopefully) heard repeatedly by now: the first way that COVID-19 spreads is thru person-to-person contact via respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets form when an individual talks, coughs, sneezes, sings, or maybe breathes. If another person breathes in those coronavirus-containing respiratory droplets, they could develop COVID-19. You’re most in danger of this happening when in close contact (six feet or fewer) with an individual who has COVID-19.

The virus only replicates in humans and animals, so it doesn’t appear to remain infectious on surfaces for long. Like many other things about this virus, experts are still investigating exactly how long it's going to survive on surfaces. Right now, it seems as if the virus can last for hours to days on various surfaces, the CDC says.

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We do know that the frozen nature of the wings could also be an enormous think about terms of the virus’s survivability. “Freezing is how we preserve viruses in labs,” Murray says. But frozen chicken wings (or the other food) testing positive for the virus doesn’t necessarily mean that food would make someone sick after eating it. Most tests will devour even remnants of SARS-CoV-2 debris, which isn’t the complete virus, Murray explains.

Researchers are still deciding just what proportion of the SARS-CoV-2 virus it takes to urge someone sick, but because the NY Times reports, it’s not only one or even a few viral particles. “We know that the more virus that you’re exposed to at the initial point of contact, the more likely you're to urge sick and potentially the sicker you’ll get,” Murray says. This is a part of why the CDC currently defines “prolonged exposure” to COVID-19 as spending 15 or more minutes fewer than six feet faraway from someone with the illness. Coming down with COVID-19 isn’t almost exposure to the virus, but also about what proportion you’re exposed to.

Beyond that, the frozen chicken would presumably be cooked before consumption, which is one more reason it wouldn’t be infectious. While we don’t know at exactly what temperature SARS-CoV-2 begins to die, the planet Health Organization reports that another sort of coronavirus, SARS, begins dying quickly at 133 degrees Fahrenheit—much less than what an epidemic would be subjected to while cooking. “Heating may be a good way to destroy [the virus],” Murray says. (To be clear, we’re talking a few concentrated heat source wont to cook food. Clearly, as long as the pandemic remains raging on within the U.S. despite the country being firmly within the summer months, it’s not true that general heat will significantly exterminate SARS-CoV-2.)

Also read: Sign/Symptoms and Prevention - COVID-19

With all of the above said, the CDC does state that it’s conceivable for somebody to urge COVID-19 after touching contaminated food then touching their eyes, ears, or mouth. Even though this isn’t a possible thanks to get sick, it’s good to take care . Wash your hands after shopping, handling food, before preparing food, and before eating, the CDC recommends. When you can’t wash your hands, use hand sanitizer made from 60% or more alcohol. Wash items people may have touched or breathed on at the grocery but that you simply won’t be cooking—like produce—as usual. (Here’s exactly how to wash various types of fruits and vegetables.) Not only will taking these measures reduce your (already low) odds of getting COVID-19 from food or food packaging, but they're going to also help prevent foodborne illness.

Beyond these steps, to stay yourself as safe as possible from COVID-19 (and also not spread it to others), still practice physical distancing and wearing masks when faraway from your household. Based on what we all know now, going bent a crowded hour with a bunch of individuals remains tons riskier than the particular food you’d eat when you’re there.