WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th February, 2021) Scientists in the United States and other nations tried and failed to find any credible evidence that the novel coronavirus is transmitted by handling food or food packaging, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Thursday.
"Consumers should be reassured that we continue to believe, based on our understanding of currently available reliable scientific information, and supported by overwhelming international scientific consensus, that the foods they eat and food packaging they touch are highly unlikely to spread SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19]," the FDA said in a� press release.
The FDA emphasized that COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that is spread from person to person, unlike foodborne or gastrointestinal viruses, such as norovirus and hepatitis A, which often make people ill through contaminated food.
As for food packaging, the FDA said the number of virus particles that could theoretically be picked up by touching a surface would be far too small to reach a threshold needed for inhalation.
The FDA said it published the release based on the best available information from scientists across the globe and an international consensus of an exceedingly low risk of human transmission.
