The European Food Safety Authority confirms food does not transmit the Covid-19 virus infection

Even at the beginning of the very first outbreaks of the virus in China it was crystal clear that food does not transmit the Covid-19 infection. The scientific community and every single one of the Italian agri-food supply chain Associations have reiterated this concept a myriad of times, in recent weeks (which WineNews has also acknowledged several times, ed.). The associations had to deal first with diffidence, skepticism and in some cases the foreign large-scale retail trade chains had even blocked imports. Therefore, now EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority has reconfirmed it. Indeed, in the words of Marta Hugas, EFSA scientific director, as told to the Italian newspaper, “Il Sole 24 Ore”, she explained once again that “there is no scientific evidence that food is the source or vehicle of Coronavirus transmission. The transmission instead occurs through the nasal pharyngeal tract and, at the current state of our knowledge, it cannot occur through the digestive tract. The European Union benefits from well-defined rules on biosecurity and industrial hygiene, and these rules guarantee a high level of food safety for consumers”. Moreover, the EU Agency, based in Parma, has recently reiterated that “experiences of previous epidemic outbreaks identifiable to Coronaviruses, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) Coronavirus and the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) Coronavirus, also showed that there had been no transmission through food consumption. At the moment there is no evidence that Coronavirus Covid-19 is any different”.