US affirms no transmission of COVID-19 through food or packaging

A joint statement issued Feb. 18 by the Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention underscored “there is no credible evidence of food or food packaging associated with or as a likely source of viral transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus causing COVID-19.

“Our confidence in the safety of the US food supply remains steadfast,” the agencies said. “Consumers should be reassured that we continue to believe, based on our understanding of currently available reliable scientific information, and supported by overwhelming international scientific consensus, that the foods they eat and food packaging they touch are highly unlikely to spread SARS-CoV-2.”

The statement attributed to then Acting Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Shea and Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, MD, was timely in view of continued assertions made by Chinese health officials and state media suggesting traces of the virus on imported frozen food or frozen food packaging may have been the source of the June outbreak of COVID-19 in Beijing and even of China’s initial outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019. China has been pushing back against indications the global pandemic originated in China.

Chinese officials have stepped up inspections of imported frozen food in the past several months, which has led to some shipments being rejected on claims traces of COVID-19 were found on packaging.  China’s trading partners, including the European Union, Canada, Brazil and the United States, said China has produced no evidence to justify its rejection of certain frozen food shipments or to the effect traces of the virus found on frozen food or packaging could lead to infection of humans.

The statement also came shortly after comments by Peter Ben Embarek, PhD, who led the World Health Organization team of scientists that recently was in Wuhan to investigate the origins of the initial COVID-19 outbreak in China.