Can you get coronavirus through food? What to know as you prepare Thanksgiving dinner
As families make plans for Thanksgiving dinner, health officials have urged people to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
So, what should you know if you’re preparing food?
While there’s no evidence of direct coronavirus spread from eating or handling food, there could be risks in the kitchen, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday in its updated guidance.
“It is possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object, including food, food packaging, or utensils that have the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes,” according to health officials.
To help protect against the coronavirus, the CDC recommends people use soap and water or hand sanitizer after going to the grocery store. It’s also recommended everyone wash their hands before making or eating meals.
“The risk of infection by the virus from food products, food packaging, or bags is thought to be very low,” the CDC said in August. “Currently, no cases of COVID-19 have been identified where infection was thought to have occurred by touching food, food packaging, or shopping bags.”
At holiday dinners, health officials recommend disinfecting surfaces that people often touch. It’s also best to consider limiting the number of people in the kitchen and offering single-use silverware and condiments, McClatchy News reported.
Though experts say COVID-19 may be transmitted when someone touches a contaminated surface, the disease is mainly thought to spread when sick people release droplets from their bodies while breathing, speaking, coughing or sneezing.
This Thanksgiving, the CDC has urged Americans to avoid traveling as U.S. coronavirus cases climb. Health officials say smaller holiday dinners with people in your household are the safest, while gathering with a group you don’t live with poses a higher risk of spreading the virus, McClatchy News reported.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Can you get coronavirus through food? What to know as you prepare Thanksgiving dinner."
