7 home food safety tips for coronavirus prevention

WHILE practising home food safety and good personal hygiene are always important, hand washing is especially critical in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and should be done often.

Although questions have been raised regarding the transmission of COVID-19, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) says there is no evidence that food is a source of COVID-19 transmission.

The spreads is from person to person through the droplets that patients exhale, sneeze or cough.

As far as experts are aware, at this time, you cannot get the virus from ingesting food. However if you were to touch food that contains the virus and then touch your mouth or eyes or other mucus membranes, you could get it. But the risk is extremely low.

Proper home food safety is advised, including promptly refrigerating foods, keeping raw and cooked foods separate to avoid cross-contamination, and heating food to the appropriate internal temperature.

Other recommendations include:

• Prepare the food as close to meal times as possible.
• Use single-use hand towels.
• Do not put shopping bags on the kitchen counter or reuse them.
• Use bleach for cleaning.
• Thoroughly wash raw food vegetables to remove particles and soak them in water with a few drops of bleach (this includes those ready-to-eat vegetables).
• If you have to taste the food, do not use your hands, rather a spoon that should be washed well before using it again.
• Remove any food debris or grease in the kitchen.