Why certain foods you eat every day could give you Covid-19

Raspberries and broccoli might give you Covid, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned.

Experts have revealed that the virus that causes Covid-19 can live on some ready-to-eat groceries for days.

They found that the virus appeared to live longer on produce with uneven surfaces, such as broccoli and raspberries than on smooth-skinned produce such as apples.

However, they have advised that the risk to consumers remains very low.

The discovery was made after scientists for the FSA carried out laboratory tests, purposely smearing the virus onto packaging and foods that are ready-to-eat.

They chose items such as fruit, pastries, bottled drinks and cans for the tests - all items that people might put in their mouths without cooking or washing.

Most foods that were tested showed a “significant drop” in levels of virus contamination over the first 24 hours, but results varied.

The virus was detected on peppers, ham, bread crust and cheese for several days under some conditions, while it was only present for several hours on the surfaces of croissants and pain au chocolat - perhaps because they contain a coating of egg wash which might act as an antiviral.

‘Highly noteworthy’

It can survive for up to a week on plastic surfaces, for several days on cartons and only a few hours on aluminium cans.

They suggested it could last for possibly a week on deli items because of the high protein and fat content.

The University of Southampton researchers said the findings were “highly noteworthy”, particularly because in some cases traces of the virus survived for about a week.

The amount of virus the scientists applied was designed to simulate how much might land on food if someone who was infected coughed or sneezed near it, as Covid is spread by respiratory droplets.

“For a highly infectious agent such as SARS-CoV-2, which can be transmitted through touching contaminated surfaces and then the face, these findings are highly noteworthy,” they said.

However, they added that there is no need for shoppers to take extra precautions while handling food in the supermarket other than washing their hands before preparing food and eating it as well as rinsing fresh produce to help get rid of any contamination.

They noted that foods and packaging used in the study were “artificially inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 and therefore are not a reflection of contamination levels found on these foods at retail, and lower levels of contamination will require less time to decline to undetectable levels”.

They added the results of the study “reinforce the need to rigorously follow the guidance on maintaining appropriate hygienic handling measures and display of unpackaged foods”.

‘Worst-case assumption’

Anthony Wilson, microbiological risk assessment team leader at the FSA, said: “In the early stages of the pandemic, we didn’t know much about how the virus would survive on different food surfaces and packaging, so the risk assessment was based on a worst-case assumption.

“This research gives us additional insight into the stability of coronavirus on the surfaces of a variety of foods and confirms that assumptions we made in the early stages of the pandemic were appropriate and that the probability that you can catch Covid via food is very low.”

Breathing in infected droplets of the virus, rather than touching contaminated surfaces, is still the main way people catch Covid.

It comes as the recent fall in the number of Covid-19 patients in England looks to have halted, with early signs that levels are starting to rise once more.

New figures showed on Friday that Covid infections across the UK have risen above one million again, with levels increasing in England for the first time since mid-October.

The new Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures come alongside early signs that Covid-19 patient levels in England are also starting to rise once more.

The total number of people in private households in the UK testing positive for coronavirus rose to 1.0 million in the week of November 21, up 6 per cent from 972,400 the previous week.

During the latest wave, the total peaked at just over two million in mid-October.