Anyone else worried about ready to eat food being a risk?

[CrapTVAddict]

Maybe overthinking this but I'm now worried about any 'ready to eat food' being handled by someone who is infected. I know people are concerned about packaging but I mean the actual food itself that is ready to eat like sausage rolls, sliced sandwich ham even bread etc that would have been touched by someone and then packaged.

I know people are washing packaging but what if the actual food is contaminated by a infected person?
Would that mean cold ready to eat food is more a risk to eat than food that requires heating and would kill the virus?

Must just be me who has thought this!

Following with interest. I was concerned about restaurant food or takeaways and therefore didn't eat them. I'd say long term packaged food will probably be ok if older than a week but who knows if it lies dormant when airtight.

Have a read of [[https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/03/food-safety-and-coronavirus-a-comprehensive-guide.html this]]. It is an excellent article written by a chef/writer/restaurant owner/scientist and is extremely informative.

If you are truly worried about pre-prepared food, learn how to cook from scratch (not helpful, I know, but it is the solution).

If you are truly worried about pre-prepared food, learn how to cook from scratch (not helpful, I know, but it is the solution).

Who’s to say ingredients you buy from scratch aren’t infected either?

Thanks for replies, I know people worried about takeaways and packaging but haven't heard anyone else think about packaged food.

The chef link doesn't work for me unfortunately.

This is ridiculous sorry. What about the food you buy in supermarkets? Perhaps it has been picked and packed by people who have been infected too.

You must know they were gloves when packing the goods and often a lot of it is done by machines. You will drive yourself crazy if you won’t even eat food because you think it has been infected.

Yes you can clean the packaging from supermarkets

It's not ridiculous, we know very little about this virus. If anyone has coughed nearby or touched the food before packaging goes on then it will be there, on the food, and you will eat it. Some people are having bowel symptoms too.

Stop fearmongering and read the article. the risk of catching COVID 19 from groceries is extremely small and theoretical at best.

By the time you eat that supermarket sausage roll I would bet at least 3 days have passed since anyone touched the actual food inside. This is why these foods have all the preservatives... they are really quite old by the time we eat them...

I'm not fear mongering I'm actually scared of the possibility. The link doesn't work for me to read but I will have a google to see

Mominatrix Thanks for that link, that's a great article! I've read some strange panic-induced advice on MN in the past week... everyone should read this article!

In addition to everything, I think common sense suggests if it was easy to catch the virus from food, packaging, deliveries, letters etc., then a lot of us would already be ill!

I just bought some crusty rolls that weren’t wrapped so I put them in a really hot oven for 5 mins before we ate them. Just incase someone had touched them 😬