There is "no credible evidence" that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is transmitted through contaminated food or food packaging, according to a statement just released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Live Science reports.
The statement follows a news conference held by the World Health Organization (WHO) last week, during which scientists listed frozen packages of food as a possible source of coronavirus transmission, NPR reported. The link or lack thereof between food and coronavirus spread also has implications for figuring out the origin of the coronavirus outbreak and later pandemic, which seems to have started in Wuhan, China.
Disease ecologist Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO team investigating the origins of the pandemic, said that the team is "trying to keep an open mind" about what sparked the early COVID-19 superspreader event at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. In recent months, Chinese state media has pushed a theory that the coronavirus first emerged elsewhere and that it hitched a ride on frozen food sold at the market, Reuters reported. And China has also blamed frozen food imports for a spate of new infections, saying several packages have tested positive for the virus, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The seafood market outbreak was most likely tied to a live animal at the market, or an infected vendor or customer, but the WHO team hasn't discounted frozen meat and seafood as another potential source of infection, Daszak said, according to NPR.
