Experts tell how to safely do takeout and cook at home during the coronavirus lockdown.
To take out or to eat-in? That is the question. While the coronavirus pandemic has dashed brunch plans for the foreseeable future, takeout and delivery from some of your favorite restaurants is still an option during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Actually, for some areas, it’s the only option.
If you go out to eat all the time you’re going to have a higher risk of coming into contact with some sort of pathogen. That’s just the nature of how these things work.
When you are at home, know, who is preparing your food and you know if you’re ill or not, and they’re your germs and you’re consuming it. In any circumstances, home prepared food is typically, less risky, but I wouldn’t say avoid eating to go food, it’s just right now if you’re getting food to go you’re gonna be interacting with someone else. How close do you really stand to a delivery person when they’re handing over your food?
Basic hygiene practices still apply so you of course you should still wash your hands. If you did have contact then you distance yourself as at least 6 feet (recommended). Even if you did wipe the outside of whatever container or bag it was delivered in, you need to wash your hands. So, washing your hands is really the best and most effective thing you can do.
And whether a sanitizer would actually work on some of those containers I think is a big unknown right now, anyways. Most viruses can survive on various surfaces for differing amount of time, depending on the ambient condition, so it could be the relative humidity, the temperature of that particular environment. So right now, from what I’ve read about this particular coronavirus is that it can survive on cardboard for up to 24 hours. It can survive on some stainless steel and plastic surfaces for one to three days. Similar with everything else minimize touching your face. This is best practices all the time. The effectiveness of Lysol wipes on some of these delivery package materials, I don’t know if it’s been studied or known, and so you imagine wiping something wet on the cardboard, and, there’s different types of surfaces, right.
There’s porous surfaces, so cardboard I would consider a porous surface, it’ll absorb liquid. Where you have a hard countertop, which is not going to absorb it and so that is more easily disinfected. And so my opinion would be if that makes you feel good, to wipe it off with a Lysol wipe or a disinfectant wipe, more power to you. I think the biggest point is to wash your hands after you finish handling that package. There’s no indication that ingestion of food that may have coronavirus on it is a route of infection. So, with that said, in general, viruses are susceptible to heat. It depends on the type of virus. So a coronavirus, which is a respiratory virus, is probably going to be inactivated, or killed, with food that is hotter, than food that is colder.
So is ordering takeout safe? Experts say yes, but with a few caveats. Dr. Kristen Gibson, an associate professor of food safety and microbiology at the University of Arkansas, weights in on what you should know before you dig in. “I wouldn’t say avoid eating to-go food,” she says.
Plus, you probably won’t get COVID-19 through consuming food. “The risk of contracting coronavirus through food has been, and is, extremely small,” says Martin Wiedmann, a professor of food safety in Cornell University’s food science department.
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The safest option? Prep and cook your own food
“At home, you know who’s preparing your food, and you know if you’re ill or not,” says Gibson, adding that when other people are cooking up your chow, there’s “a higher risk of coming into contact with some sort of pathogen.” Still, she doesn’t go so far as to forbid your favorite joint.
Wash your hands before you eat delivery food
Some delivery platforms are starting to do contact-free delivery — dropping food at your doorstep so there’s no change of hands. Grubhub, which owns Seamless, and Instacart have both implemented these policies. A rep from Grubhub says they have also “provided drivers and restaurants with the CDC’s recommendations that focus on good hygiene.”
Still, contactless delivery typically involves a handoff. If you accidentally touch while tipping your delivery person, just remember to wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water.
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“Even if you did wipe the outside of whatever container or bag it was delivered in, you need to wash your hands,” says the doc. And if you’re wondering if Lysol-ing takeout containers does anything: “It’s a big unknown,” says Gibson.
Don’t touch your face
You’ve heard this one before, but it’s especially important to remember when you’re tucking into dinner.
“This is best practice all the time,” says Gibson, “That’s just cleanliness.”
Many outlets have stepped up sanitary precautions. The chain Juice Press — which already requires smoothie-makers to wear gloves — says, “We have increased the frequency of cleaning and disinfecting our stores . . . and surfaces”
Disinfecting packaging is less important than washing hands
What to do with food packaging can be confusing in the time of corona, and for good reason.
“There’s different types of surfaces,” says Gibson, “I would consider cardboard a porous surface. It will absorb liquid [like sanitizer].” Hard countertops, on the other hand “can be disinfected more easily.” Skip the science degree and just remember to wash your hands after you handle any packages from the outside.
Hot food could kill the coronavirus
“Viruses are susceptible to heat,” says Gibson. The coronavirus, she says “would be inactivated, or killed, with food that is hotter.” That might mean zapping your takeout in the microwave or skipping the milkshake from your favorite burger joint.
In the coming weeks, can we expect to see harsher measures, like those taking place in China? There, deliverers for McDonald’s, Starbucks and other chains have been required to carry cards displaying their temperatures as well as those of the people who prepped the food to verify their good health. This is in addition to protocols around disinfecting delivery bags.
Wiedmann doesn’t think it will get that bad here. He says “social distancing in a reasonable way,” and “not sneezing on other people” are far more important risk-mitigating factors than handing off a tip (and please, make it a generous one) to your delivery guy.
“Even if I stay in my house and lock myself in, and eat no food, my risk of acquiring coronavirus is not zero,” says Wiedmann. “But my risk of dying of starvation is extremely high.”
