1. Does the virus remain infectious in food? In particular, does hot or reheated food affect it?
2. The digestive process produces more acid. Will that kill the virus?
3. Will the virus even touch the wall of the stomach? It may be in food after chewing, rather than directly on the stomach wall
There are some reasons to think that swallowing virus replicating in your throat is different than having some inside a chewed up piece of food surrounded by saliva.
We don’t know of course, and someone super high risk should perhaps avoid takeout salads. But as of yet we haven’t had any case cluster reports where a superspreader cook spread the virus to their colleagues + customers via food. No country has reported a single instance of a traced infection via takeout.
This doesn’t mean it’s impossible, as contact tracing is not perfect. But the lack of any evidence so far is suggestive.
1. Does the virus remain infectious in food? In particular, does hot or reheated food affect it?
2. The digestive process produces more acid. Will that kill the virus?
3. Will the virus even touch the wall of the stomach? It may be in food after chewing, rather than directly on the stomach wall
There are some reasons to think that swallowing virus replicating in your throat is different than having some inside a chewed up piece of food surrounded by saliva.
We don’t know of course, and someone super high risk should perhaps avoid takeout salads. But as of yet we haven’t had any case cluster reports where a superspreader cook spread the virus to their colleagues + customers via food. No country has reported a single instance of a traced infection via takeout.
This doesn’t mean it’s impossible, as contact tracing is not perfect. But the lack of any evidence so far is suggestive.