How long can the virus live on surfaces?

[GlitterToast]

My partner is insisting on cleaning every item of food we buy. It's driving me mad! He claims that the virus lived on surfaces for three days, which I'm not convinced of...

Does anyone know how long the virus can last on non-human surfaces?

Bump

Yes 3 days for plastic and stainless steel
20hours for cardboard

If you can leave some items in their bags for 3 days, then do that
fresh stuff or items for consumption in 3 days should be cleaned

Info I've read in a number of places says:
Copper : 4 hours
Cardboard : 24 hours
Some types of plastic : 72 hours
Stainless steel : 48 or 72 hours depending where you read

Sorry OP.
I'm your DP and my DH is you!

It's pointless. Just wash your hands.

There is a video of an American doctor showing you how to deal with this .
Dirty zone , clean zone . I'll see if I can find it.

I’m not taking any chances. Did our usual big 2 weekly shop yesterday ( only the two of us, over 60) and left most of it ( tins, packets, usual cleaning stuff etc) in the car boot and just brought in the fridge and freezer stuff. So only some to wipe. I’ll just bring the other stuff in as I want to use it , doesn’t seem such a daunting task that way and as we aren’t using the car it’s not getting in the way.

Food Safety with Dr Jeffrey VanWingen.

I dunno why I bother. I'll stop soon.
The experiments for how long the virus lives, the surfaces were

Kept in the dark (probably, ok, I think so. I can't find any actual info about light levels in the article -- or pH for that matter)
Kept at 21-23 degr C strictly
The surface was sterilised first and kept sterile (no pesky other germs competing for resources or eating viruses)
Kept at 40% humidity
Had a high dose of the virus applied in a nice medium that nourished the virus.
Not rubbed upon other objects repeatedly during the experiment

If that describes all the stuff that comes into your house AND you think someone contaminated your stuff, then sure, sterilise away.

Otherwise fomite transmission is unusual. People breathing on you is not unusual. Each infected person tends to only infect 2-3 others. They can't infect only 2-3 others if everything they touch becomes instantly highly infectious for 3+ days.

@Clymene, ok so you came back with your plastic boxes from tesco... Then washed your hands... And grabbed your noodle box to eat... And ops, you've touched potentially contaminated box again... The only pointless thing here is washing your hands and not potentially contaminated surfaces!

Tell him to wash his hands. That's the whole point of the massive 'wash your hands' campaign

The only pointless thing here is washing your hands and not potentially contaminated surfaces!

Washing your hands is not pointless

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/31/how-long-does-coronavirus-live-on-different-surfaces

There's a programme on now about this on 4seven: Coronavirus can you avoid it

Grrrrr! This wasn't the response I was hoping for

I wear gloves and mask in the shop.

Throw both away when i leave the shop, then clean gloves to out shopping in car.
Bin Gloves....
Out of car, clean gloves, perishable shopping in the house, leave the rest in car for afew days.....
Disinfect fridge stuff before putting in fridge.
Disinfect sides / gloves in bin.

Post gets picked up with gloves, Wiped down with antibac wipe and left for atleast 24 hours before opening

That sounds exhausting tbh

Each to their own