Covid-19 | No evidence of threat from packaging says WHO

The World Health Organisation has reassured the public stating that it has found no evidence that food packaging poses a coronavirus threat.

In the UK the issue of Covid-19 and food/food packaging was recently raised when nearly 300 members of staff had tested positive for the virus at The Greencore factory, in Northampton.

The company supplies sandwiches to M&S but the products are not believed to put the public at risk of contracting the virus.

Packaging and Covid-19 was last week a topic of discussion on Good Morning Britain. Dr Sarah Jarvis told viewers: “Theoretically, even if something is cooked, if the packaging is made up – and we know that for instance in New Zealand they think that the latest outbreak they have had may have come in on packaging rather than through people – yes, there is a risk.”

In China, it was reported that two cities had found traces of the coronavirus in imported frozen chicken wings from Brazil and on outer packaging of frozen Ecuadorian shrimp.

However, the WHO believes the threat is negligible at worst. It’s head of emergencies programme Mike Ryan, told a briefing in Geneva: “People should not fear food, or food packaging or processing or delivery of food,”

“There is no evidence that food or the food chain is participating in transmission of this virus. And people should feel comfortable and safe.”

WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said China had tested hundreds of thousands of packages and “found very, very few, less than 10” proving positive for the virus.

Those who are still concerned might take the advice of Professor Sally Bloomfield from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She told the BBC that people can either leave products for 72 hours before using them or ‘spray and wipe plastic or glass containers with bleach [diluted as directed on the bottle]’.