外賣食品安全嗎?

外賣食品安全嗎?

Don Schaffner had Thai takeout for dinner a few nights ago, just as he did occasionally in the weeks and months before the current COVID-19 pandemic.

唐·沙夫納幾天前晚上吃了泰國外賣晚餐，就像他在目前的COVID-19大流行前的幾周和幾個月偶爾吃的一樣。

That's worth knowing. Schaffner is a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey whose expertise includes quantitative microbial risk assessment, predictive food microbiology, hand-washing and cross-contamination.

這是值得了解的。沙夫納是新澤西州羅格斯大學的杰出教授，專長包括微生物風險定量評估、食品微生物預測、洗手和交叉污染。

"I know people are worried, but from what we know currently about the virus, it's safe to eat food prepared at restaurants so long as you take the proper precautions — in particular hand-washing," says Schaffner.

沙夫納說:“我知道人們很擔心，但是根據我們目前對這種病毒的了解，只要采取適當的預防措施，特別是洗手，吃餐館準備的食物是安全的。”

As the coronavirus spreads in the U.S. and Americans heed directives to stay home, takeout and delivery of prepared food is picking up. Many of us are wondering if eating takeout is a good idea. (Plus shouldn't we be cooking all those groceries we stocked up on?)

隨著冠狀病毒在美國的傳播，美國人聽從指令呆在家里，外賣和熟食的快遞也在增加。我們許多人都在想，吃外賣是不是一個好主意。(另外，我們是不是應該把要儲存的所有雜貨都煮一下?)

Luckily for lazy people, eating food prepared in restaurants appears to be a safe choice. Current guidance from the Food and Drug Administration states that "there is no evidence to suggest that food produced in the United States can transmit COVID-19."

幸運的是，對于懶惰的人來說，吃餐館里準備的食物似乎是一個安全的選擇。美國食品和藥物管理局目前的指導意見稱，“沒有證據表明美國生產的食品可以傳播COVID-19.”

Infectious disease and food safety experts we spoke to say they base their determination that takeout food is safe on decades of research on other coronaviruses, which were first identified in humans in the 1960s.

我們采訪的傳染病和食品安全專家說，基于幾十年來對其他冠狀病毒的研究，他們認為外賣食品是安全的，這些病毒在20世紀60年代首次在人類身上發(fā)現。

"While COVID-19 is new to us, coronaviruses are not, and with all the studies done on these viruses, there has never been any information to implicate food-borne transmission," says Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine in the department of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn.

田納西州納什維爾范德比爾特大學醫(yī)學院傳染病系的醫(yī)學教授威廉·沙夫納博士說：“雖然我們對COVID-19還不太了解，但對冠狀病毒比較了解，隨著對這些病毒進行的所有研究，從來沒有任何信息涉及食物傳播。”。

The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is primarily spread via droplets expelled through coughing or sneezing, says William Schaffner. If you're standing too close (within about 6 feet) to an infected person when the person coughs or sneezes, or even possibly when the person speaks or exhales, viral droplets could make their way to your nasal passages and mucous membranes. Or if you touch a surface with droplets on it and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, that could also lead to infection.

引起COVID-19的冠狀病毒主要通過咳嗽或打噴嚏時噴出的飛沫傳播，威廉·沙夫納說。當患者咳嗽或打噴嚏，甚至可能說話或呼氣時，如果你站得離患者太近(約6英尺內)，病毒滴可能會進入你的鼻腔和粘膜?；蛘?，如果你接觸到表面有液滴的物體，然后又接觸到你的眼睛、鼻子或嘴巴，也可能導致感染。

William Schaffner explains that the virus is primarily risky to us when it attaches to surfaces in our respiratory tract, not when we accidentally eat it. "The virus seems to be latching onto cells in the upper reaches of the nose, a place food doesn't enter," he explains. "Virus that found its way into your gastrointestinal tract would be killed by the acid in your stomach."

威廉·沙夫納解釋說，對我們來說當病毒附著在呼吸道的表面時是主要的風險，而不是當我們不小心吃掉它的時候。他解釋說:“這種病毒似乎是附著在鼻子上部的細胞上，而食物是無法進入這個部位的。”“進入胃腸道的病毒會被胃酸殺死。”

Several infectious disease experts whom NPR spoke to concurred that research hasn't turned up any evidence of COVID-19 spreading through food.

幾位接受美國國家公共電臺采訪的傳染病專家一致認為，研究并沒有發(fā)現任何證據表明COVID-19通過食物傳播。

"There are no published reports of linkage to food [of the novel coronavirus]," says Dr. Rachel Bender Ignacio, an associate professor of allergy and infectious diseases at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In February, the World Health Organization said the same thing, though it noted that food safety authorities are keeping an eye on the issue.

華盛頓大學醫(yī)學院過敏癥和傳染病副教授雷切爾·本德·伊格納西奧博士表示:“目前還沒有發(fā)表過有關(這種新型冠狀病毒)與食品有關的報道。”今年2月，世界衛(wèi)生組織也說了同樣的話，不過該組織指出，食品安全部門正在密切關注這一問題。

While all the experts we spoke to were in agreement that restaurant food is safe to order during the COVID-19 outbreak, if you are immunocompromised or just feeling extra wary, you may want to consider ordering cooked food only rather than uncooked items such as sandwiches. Cooking at high-enough temperatures kills viruses, says Elizabeth Mills, a registered dietitian at the Villanova University College of Nursing, in Villanova, Pa.

雖然我們采訪的所有專家都同意，在COVID-19爆發(fā)期間，餐館的食物是安全的，但如果你免疫功能受損或只是感到格外謹慎，你可能會考慮只點熟食，而不是像三明治這樣的生食。賓夕法尼亞州維拉諾瓦市維拉諾瓦大學護理學院的注冊營養(yǎng)師伊麗莎白·米爾斯說，在足夠高的溫度下烹飪可以殺死病毒。

It's also worth noting that safe food-handling rules, required of any establishment that serves food, would also be protective against spreading the coronavirus, says Don Schaffner. These include wearing gloves, workers staying home when sick, frequent hand-washing and disinfecting of surfaces in the kitchen.

唐·沙夫納說，同樣值得注意的是，任何食品供應企業(yè)都必須遵守安全的食品處理規(guī)定，這也可以防止冠狀病毒的傳播。這些措施包括戴手套、員工生病時呆在家里、經常洗手以及對廚房表面進行消毒。