According to the health authorities, the risk of contamination by the digestive tract is not proven today. However, concerns have arisen from contamination detected in slaughterhouses.
- Several cases of Covid-19 have been detected among employees working in slaughterhouses
- The National Health Security Agency recalls that there is no evidence that meat from these slaughterhouses can contaminate consumers
Cases of covid-19 have been detected in several French slaughterhouses in recent weeks. In Kermené, in the Côtes-d’Armor, 115 people tested positive out of the company’s 800 employees. Other factories are concerned, particularly in Loiret and Vendée. In Germany and the United States, slaughterhouses have also been affected by the virus. If the exact causes of the multiplication of these contaminations are unknown for the time being, the promiscuity of workers in slaughterhouses is a possible explanation.
Little or no risk of contamination from meat
In any case, the meat would not be the source of the contamination. “There is no evidence that farmed animals and the foods derived from them play a role in the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19,” indicates the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (Anses) in a communicated. This means that the risk for the consumer is also not proven. “No scientific data suggests that the virus can infect us through the digestive tract,” adds the text.
Only one case of food-related contamination is possible: when a contaminated person handles meat or any other product, without having cleaned their hands sufficiently beforehand, or if droplets are projected by coughing or sneezing. For a person to be contaminated because of this infected food, the traces of the virus would then have to reach the respiratory tract, “when the food passes through the oropharyngeal intersection, for example if one takes a false route “, explains Gilles Salvat, Director of Animal Health and Welfare at ANSES, at Figaro.
A few precautionary measures
For that to happen, the virus would have to survive on meat processed in slaughterhouses. “Throughout the chain, the products are very protected, even before this period of epidemic”, indicates Matthieu Revest, doctor at the CHU of Rennes, to France 3 Brittany. According to him, the probability that the virus resists all the precautionary measures taken in these establishments is low.
In any case, it is recommended to cook the food well to prevent any risk. “Sars-CoV-2 is a virus sensitive to usual cooking temperatures. We have a division by 10,000 of the quantity of virus initially present if it is heated for 4 minutes at 63°C, specifies Sandra Martin-Latil at France Info. If we respect this, there is no risk of contamination through food.
#Deconfinement – Want to take advantage of the #barbecue ?
1⃣ To properly prepare the meal:❄Keep your meat in the coldest part of the refrigerator
????Wash your hands
❌Do not mix cooked meat and raw meat???? https://t.co/MCQusY1sxo pic.twitter.com/chPDXJ8WaA
— Anses (@Anses_fr) May 21, 2020
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