4 TIPS TO EASE CONCERNS ABOUT TAKEOUT

As America begins to reopen for business, restaurants in several states have reopened for indoor dining.

In most places, takeout and delivery are still the most available and convenient option for those who would rather not cook during the coronavirus pandemic.

But many questions remain about the risks of those methods. Here are some answers from food safety specialists and public health experts.

1. Takeout is just as safe as delivery

“There’s very little evidence of transmission by surfaces. There’s no evidence the virus is transmitted by food,” said Donald Schaffner, an extension specialist in food science at Rutgers University. “Therefore the safest choice is going to be the one that avoids contact with the most people.”

Both takeout and delivery are lower in risk than eating out, because you tend not to be around others for long periods of time.

Delivery, though, is slightly safer because of contactless delivery, which lets workers leave food at your door, said Ben Chapman, a professor and food safety specialist at North Carolina State University. Because the ordering and payment are done electronically, customers and workers never need to touch.

2. Don’t fear the wrapper

Even if an infected person did touch a package, the risk of transmission is slim, said John Williams, chief of pediatric diseases at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh. “That person would have to contaminate their own hands (for example, wiping their nose), touch and contaminate the package, and then we would have to touch the package in the same place and then rub our nose or eyes,” Williams wrote in an email.

The virus would have to live on the packaging as it was transported from the restaurant to your home. The risk of it making it there is “astonishingly low,” said Paula Cannon, a professor of immunology at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

3. Order whatever you like

Because the virus is not believed to be carried by food, you can order anything you like — sushi, pizza, salads.

“The risk lies on interacting with people, not on the type of food,” Olga Padilla-Zakour, director of the Cornell Food Venture Center at Cornell University, wrote in an email. “There is no difference,” she added, between raw and cooked food.

If you are still worried, warm the food. Heat kills most pathogens. The coronavirus thrives in wet conditions, and heat dries moisture. “And if you are in the 1% of extreme worriers, order pizza and zap it in the oven at 400 degrees,” Cannon said.

4. Be wary of people, not food

When you order, ask the restaurant specific questions about how the workers are protected. At minimum, ask if they are wearing personal protective equipment, like masks and gloves.

But you should also ask how workers are paid, said Saru Jayaraman, director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Ask if they get sick pay, so they don’t have to work if they are ill.

“This is a moment when consumers have tremendous power to actually influence worker treatment because health and safety is on the top of everybody’s mind,” she said.