Are takeaways safe?

[Dee1975]

Ok so appreciate I may have been over cautious during lockdown, I wipe everything down from the supermarket before I take it into the house, I open post and throw away the envelope straight away and wash hands. I’m pretty paranoid about any surface that ‘it’ could last on for a number of hours / days. Just doing what I can to keep my family safe ...
Since lockdown a lot of places have resorted to doing takeaway food - which is great they are doing what they can to keep running during this time. Whilst a lot of friends have been getting takeaways - im just not sure it’s safe? Someone breathing over your food whilst prepping it, the cardboard box it’s given to you in ... Etc ...
Am I being unreasonable in thinking that takeaways are just not safe?

I had pizza last night and a few weeks ago, im ok. Don't get 1 if you don't think its safe.

I think the actual food if it’s hot will be fine. So put it on a plate, bin the container, wash your hands.

Yes. We've been getting them once a week throughout lockdown. We're all still alive.

Yes I think you are being overly cautious and stuck in some sort of panic mode I have had a few take away and the place we use they were wearing masks. Cooks in takeaways and restaurants have always handled and breathed on your food it has always had a bit of risk attached.

Even as someone who is clinically vulnerable and supposed to be taking extra care with social distancing, our household isn't going to the lengths you are OP anyway. So we've had takeaways - both collection and delivery - from the start. It's been fine. It's always felt pretty safe.

We are particularly enjoying the 'posh' takeaways from the restaurants who didn't used to do them.

Transmission over a touched surface such as a takeaway is not impossible, but is incredibly low. There is a difference between traces and sufficient quantity and quality of the virus being in a form suitable for infecting your respiritory system.

At the moment, community presence transmission is low so the chances og anyone working in the takeaway is also low.

Takeaways have been one of the few businesses open for trading throughout the last couple of months.

I'm sure they're perfectly safe but it's not a risk I'm willing to take right now, I've just been buying lots of 'fake away' food from iceland and filling my freezer for when we want something quick.

It’s going to depend totally on the individual restaurant I would think, we have been ordering weekly takeaways from places that we know and trust will be doing the right things (probably a good indicator are those which closed for a while to prepare themselves properly before reopening?). But it’s up to each individual to assess risk for themselves

Are you unhealthy? Is that why you are so paranoid?

I take all the same precautions as you OP, and have managed a couple of takeaways - the dominos pizza box was discarded, hands washed and pizza reheated for a few mins on my own pizza trays. The Indian takeaway was tipped into our own serving dishes and hands washed. Both places the people working there wear masks. I reached the point where I was sick to death of cooking and needed a night off the planning and prep. I think if you take all reasonable precautions you’ll be fine.

I’ve been eating takeaways throughout and it’s fine.

The virus surviving on surfaces is under lab conditions. In reality it is so delicate in real life touching it destroys it. That’s why the government hasn’t said to wipe your shopping down.

Is there a risk, yes, potentially a very very small one, that someone sneezed or coughed on it immediately before your touched it, then you touched your mouth or eyes and in some way you didn’t kill it.

It’s like billions to one chance.

YABU.

We've had several different take aways over the weeks. We wash hands, throw packaging away - at the start I even blasted the pizza in the micro to 'nuke' it.

All I can say is 8 weeks of doing this and we are ok.

We've had takeaway every couple of weeks. Dont see it as high risk tbh

You're going to have to loosen up. I have totally done the StayAtHome bit, I've abided by every restriction set. I wash my hands frequently. I keep my distance from anyone etc.

But I have not wiped down anything from a supermarket,or stuck it in the garage for 72 hours or any of that stuff. Not once. Or even thought about envelopes!

And we are fine.

Have a takeaway and enjoy it.

Maybe I'm more lax but I've not been wiping down shopping should I have been ?

There are a million articles consulting scientists on whether or not it's safe and all of them have said yes.
If you're really worried, put on gloves to take the pots out of the bag. Tip or use cutlery to put the food on plates (don't touch the plates with your gloves on). Throw the packaging away, wash the cutlery and your gloves and there's zero contamination.
They've said purchasing hot food is likely to kill the virus so it's very unlikely to spread anyway.

I’ve had loads of takeaways
I’ve not quarantined my shopping or post or washed down anything I’ve bought
There are 5 adults living in our house and we’ve had no illness

We've been getting takeaways once per week since lockdown started. Just wash your hands thoroughly after you've handled the packaging, and if you are still worried, give the food a blast in the microwave.

@Mrsjayy Not unless you want to come out of this suffering with OCD.

We aren’t having them, just incase

We do as BumpBundle suggests. And yes I do wipe down my shopping. We all have to make our own judgements, nobody can actually say with 100% certainty if its safe or not.

Of course they are safe.

You get Covid19 from being within 2 metres of someone from 15 minutes. Not from your shopping or a pizza box.

I dont wipe down shopping or quarantine parcels. I figure they are low risk too or all the shop staff and post men/women would all be off sick

And the comments about getting OCD are frankly insulting to those who genuinely suffer. I am a rational intelligent person who has made a decision to take certain precautions. I have not developed OCD over the past 10 weeks because I wipe my shopping, it doesn't work like that