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Such as tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, grapes, berries. If the virus is in the air presumably it can land on any fruit or vegetable that a person who is carrying the virus comes within six feet of. If we peel the fruit or vegetable before eating it does that make it safe from viral contamination? If we can't easily peel it are we supposed to wash and rinse it, or cook it to a recommended temperature, or just stay away from it for now?
Latest info on airborne spread of virus-- can be found in air 20ft (!) from the infected sneezer.
The real answer to your question is "Nobody knows."
It can be difficult to impossible to scrub produce clean, as you point out. We happen to have an ozone generator (bought to treat things that had been in storage and became moldy). We;re putting produce just brought home from the store in a big cardboard box (2-3 cu ft) with the generator for 2 hrs before transferring it to the fridge.
So far, we've been healthy.
Heating food to 160degF for 20 minutes (essentially Pasteurization) is also supposed to de-activate any bugs on it.
Yes. Just wash it first, but you should do that anyway. I saw a doctor speaking about this very thing. COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, so it doesn't do well in the digestive tract. That means that even if there is some of the virus on the food, and you eat it, the virus will die rather than make you sick. The virus also doesn't do well with heat, so cooking will kill it too.
Maybe if you sniff contaminated produce or touch your mouth after touching contaminated produce. Once it reaches your stomach however, your stomach acid will neutralize the virus. Packaging is another matter, that is more suspect so you should remove it as soon as you get it home, transfer to another type of packaging and wash your hands. CV19 is not a food-borne virus. Either way, just be careful and I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think I will have some salad tonight.
Handling them is probably more dangerous than actually eating veggies and fruit.
I wash my hands before taking out of bag, then put them in a bowl of warm water with a teaspoon of antibacterial soap. Soak and rub off the soap as you rinse. Then pat dry and clean bag them.
I do this because a sneeze will contaminate all of it. Don’t bring it to your fridge.
If you live in a high risk area take your shoes off after the store trip. Spray them with Lysol until they are wet and leave them outside.
Why bother being half careful? Gosh, will life ever be the same?
Well at least we’ve learned a lot. Have you wondered if the results of being careful might also curtail flus and bad colds? Great!
I consume a big variety of fresh veggies 3 times a day. I am not eating any salads. I am not eating any veggies raw, except for carrots, which I peel before washing and eating. I eat avocado raw, but of course not the outer skin. I wash the avocado well before cutting in half.
Before I cook fresh veggies like broccoli, I wash them in a bowl of water, fully submerged (not just rinsed out quickly under the faucet). Then it gets steamed in my pressure cooker. The pressure cooker steam will kill any bacteria or virus.
We eat a lot of fresh veggies. I read cold water only, no soaps. I've been bringing them home and soaking them in cold water right away, then putting in our own containers or zip lock bags, usually with a paper towel to soak up moisture and keep them crisp.
I read a report recently about a very small sampled study done that seems to indicate the virus might be transmittable through food and survive the digestive system. Nobody really knows. I'm still eating salad, but I take each bite with a shot of whiskey, just to be safe.
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