The discovery of COVID-19 on a chopping board in Beijing on which imported salmon had been cut set off alarms that the virus could be transmitted by food – alarms that were quickly dispelled by food safety experts around the globe.

Nevertheless, the coincidental spike in COVID cases in the capital city caused China to suspend some chicken and pork imports from the U.S. and Germany because of high numbers of coronavirus infections in certain plants.

“While experts’ understanding and knowledge of COVID-19 has continued to evolve and expand, there are some factors that have been long acknowledged,” The Acheson Group (TAG) wrote in a June 25 posting. “Two of these are:

The virus can live on surfaces for a short period of time.

There is no evidence that it can be transmitted through food.

“As has been widely declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), the US CDC and FDA, China CDC, the European Food Safety Authority and many others, including TAG – there is no evidence to support the transmission of COVID-19 through food.

“But viral droplets can be spread to any surface from the exhalations – particularly of coughing or sneezing – of an infected person, and can live on a surface for hours or days. So it would not be surprising to find a viral particle on food, or at least the RNA from virus that is now inactivated.

“This does not mean that the originating food, or animal, carried the virus or is able to transmit it when consumed. It simply means that food, like any object, has surfaces on which the virus could land; or it could pick up the virus from a food-contact surface that was not sanitized prior to use.”

What does all this mean? TAG explains: “It further emphasizes the continuing need for enhanced cleaning and sanitation of surfaces; protection of foods and surfaces from viral particles through the use of employee masks, regular hand washing, and wellness checks to keep ill employees out of the facility; and the importance of environmental monitoring and control to protect against any contamination of foods.”

TAG is a food safety consultancy headed by Dr. David Acheson, a former FDA associate commissioner for foods and chief medical officer at the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

“It doesn’t mean that the industry, media, or consumers should begin to suspect food – domestic or imported – as carrying the virus into a facility. As China CDC Chief Epidemiologist Zunyou Wu was cited as saying, ‘We cannot conclude that salmon is the source of infection just because novel coronavirus was detected on a chopping board of a seller.’

“Rather, he said, the virus was more than likely brought into the market by an infected, asymptomatic person, with the close quarters and activity at the market leading to the outbreak.”

TAG notes this was further supported by the fact that 40-some samples from the market tested positive for the virus; there was no trace of the virus on the salmon before it reached the market; and the coronaviruses cannot multiply in food – they need a live animal or human host to multiply. “All of which suggests that the virus was present in the market, not the salmon.”