Covid-19 could live on certain groceries – including fresh fruit and veg – for days in certain conditions, new research suggests.
The research, carried out for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) alongside the University of Southampton, found that the amount of time that the virus lasts can vary. It lived on peppers, bread crust, ham and cheese for several days under some conditions, but lasted for just hours on the surfaces of croissants and pain au chocolat.
However, the researchers found that overall risk to consumers remains very low.
Anthony Wilson, Microbiological Risk Assessment Team Leader at the FSA, said: “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.”
