Packaging, frozen veg and slow cookers.

If you are worried, then use an antisptic wipe on the packaging and then carry on as normal.

I'm wiping my milk bottles with a bleach solution each day. Having a delivery of fruit on Wednesday that worries me; only added my name to it to make up the numbers for a village delivery. May quarantine it with the post! I've gone through my making banana cake phase and am now at wiping everything with bleach stage.

This is the best and clearest advice available and it quotes from experts in the field www.thesun.co.uk/news/11251109/coronavirus-spread-food-packaging-are-home-deliveries-safe/

MOnica, thank you so much for this link. I am in the old vulnerable group and I really feel it is our duty to avoid this virus because it is us old and vulnerable who, of we get it, need the help to breath and that is now found to be what is killing the medics.

I got a delivery today. Got about 2/3 of what I wanted but I will manage. Feel far more confident now I have seen that link. Thanks again.

I’ve been giving anything in fully enclosed plastic packaging (e.g.a chicken and a gammon joint) a really good wash with soap and water, similar to hand washing.

That link is very helpful, thank you Monica. For further advice GracesGran has also included a useful link on the thread entitled Is Anyone Else Becoming Neurotic?

We are wiping all packs with an alcohol wipe, and washing fruit and veg in warm soapy water, then rinsing in clean water. Any letters or Amazon deliveries are left in the front porch (enclosed) for 24 hours and then opened.

Thoroughly wipe the packaging before it is put anywhere. Loose fruit and veg gets washed in soap and water then rinsed.
Apparently microwaving food will kill the bacteria so I guess that if the food is frozen, reheat it that way but would guess that if the food has been cooked thoroughly in the first place, it should be ok, however it is cooked.

I've put a box outside for the postie with a note on saying 'to save you having to negotiate another letterbox'. I then carry it into my decontamination room [ie the garage]. He drew a kiss on it today so I think he appreciated it !

NanaHev There has been no suggestion whatsoever that food is not safe. I think we would all go mad if we worried about the possibility of Coronavirus being on everything we touch. There is no need at all for you to re-package any food, nor to worry about whether your slow-cooker will kill off anything in chicken or any other food.

Covid-19 apparently can live on HARD surfaces for quite q few hours (72?). Plastics and metals being the main materials. Wash your hands before and after handling food (as usual), and you should be fine.

I have searched and searched and cannot find one reputable source that suggests that Covid-19 can be passed on by food, in fact many say quite clearly that it can't, nor has one case of transmission this way been reported.

It is the same with packaging, the chances of the infection transfering through touching packaging, whether hard surfaces or not is minimal. If someone with the infection touched a tin, even though it took 72 hours for the last viral entity to die, most of it would be dead within an hour or two and just getting one viral entity on you would not be sufficient to give you the disease, you need to get a good dose of it.

Stop sweating the small stuff and concentrate on the things that really matter, keeping your distance from other people, washing your hands, going shopping and the like as little as possible, eating well and keeping fit.

just getting one viral entity on you would not be sufficient to give you the disease, you need to get a good dose of it.
….is that 100% certain....?

Theoretically, it could, but as yet there is no definite evidence to contradict the belief that it is not possible. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090313150254.htm

Watched YouTube on how to put shopping away.They suggested you divide a cleaned work surface area in half and clean items of food and packaging as if covered in glitter(we all know how that spreads) placing on cleaned work surface side before putting away.The glitter description gave me great food for thought.

We received a fruit/veg order yesterday and until it arrived I was fine...normally we had fruit/veg within our supermarket deliveries and I simply dropped it out of the packaging into the bowl and we washed under the tap before we ate...no problem, my theory was that it was safe inside the packing for a day or two before reaching us. However, the box that arrived yesterday was freshly picked and all rattling around together..no packaging ...apples next to carrots, next to potatoes, next to onions etc and suddenly I was unsure as to how safe it was. The advice given to my husband when he underwent chemo was not to eat anything freshly handled unless cooked, i.e. tomatoes, and to eat only pre-packaged bread and not the bread that was free of packaging, I’m assuming this was because of contamination-v-low immunity and so that is what happened yesterday, no sooner than the box arrived, than some of the apples & plums were made into a pie and I have to say it was delicious, I’ll continue to work my way through the box cooking everything, I absolutely know this is not necessary given the information I’ve read but I couldn’t help myself!

I had a fruit delivery; put the box into the decontamination room [the garage]. Planned to wipe the plastic containers over with a bleach solution and promptly dropped the raspberries all over the garage floor. So I ended up boiling all the soft fruit together to freeze and make into smoothies. On the plus side, I could easily have dropped the blueberries....