Good news for Cheesecake Factoryfans! The much-loved purveyor of nearly every cheesecake flavor has expanded its partnership with GrubHub in the delivery of its dishes and desserts. Nowadays, customers can have their favorite cheesecakes and other foods delivered to their doorstep in 18 states and counting.
But we also suggest caution when ordering food and drinks for delivery and takeout from any restaurant during the coronavirus outbreak.
According to an article recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the coronavirus causing COVID-19 can survive on plastic, paper and metal, among other surfaces, for several hours to several days! You may then want to exercise more caution when receiving food deliveries but we don’t suggest going as far as disinfecting the food itself.
There’s also the statement made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that there’s no strong evidence that supports the idea that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can be transmitted after eating contaminated food. SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t seem to behave like the norovirus and hepatitis A viruses that often cause illness through the consumption of contaminated food.
SARS-CoV-2 causes respiratory illness with symptoms like coughing, difficulty breathing and fever. Currently, scientists agree that foodborne exposure to SARS-CoV-2 isn’t known as a route of transmission.
With that said, health experts still suggest precautionary measures to decrease the risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Here are a few of these measures.
Minimize Contact with Delivery Personnel
If it’s possible, you should avoid direct face-to-face contact with the delivery personnel. This is becoming easier as more and more restaurants are offering contactless delivery wherein the delivery personnel will leave the food package in your doorstep. You can then hand over the payment, so to speak, through a gap in the door or window, if you’re paying in cash.
Don’t assume that the restaurant has a contactless delivery policy either. You should ask about it and, if it isn’t in place yet, you can ask for the abovementioned steps to be done. You have the option of leaving a tip through the delivery app or included in the cash payment.
Treat the Delivery Package with Care
The package material in which the food was delivered in is a topmost concern. The material can be a paper bag or box, a plastic container, or a plastic bag, perhaps a combination of these things. Take note that the SARS-CoV-2 may survive for up to 24 hours or more on paper and cardboard, and 72 hours on plastic.
The bottom line: It’s best to assume that the SARS-CoV-2 is present on the food packaging and handling it accordingly. This is true even when the risk of transmission in this manner is low. In these times, it’s better to be safe than sorry, especially as a vaccine or a cure for COVID-19 has yet to be discovered.
Here are steps that you can do to minimize your risks when handling food delivery packages.
- Place the delivery bag in your kitchen sink. If it’s a plastic bag, you may or may not place a plastic mat on the sink beforehand but it is likely necessary for a paper bag. Don’t place the bag on any of the counter spaces and surfaces of your home!
- Transfer the food into a clean container but avoid directly touching it. Instead, use a clean fork, spoon or ladle to do so.
- Place the delivery bag in an outside trash can, if possible. Never place delivery bags inside the pantry, cabinets and refrigerator for obvious reasons; the refrigerator isn’t a good place because there’s no hard evidence that cold temperatures can kill SARS-CoV-2.
- Disinfect the kitchen sink as soon as possible, preferably after finishing your meal.
Always wash your hands after handling delivery packages and before eating, whether the food is home-made or delivered by a restaurant. You should thoroughly wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water.
Takeout Is Another Matter
If you’re picking food from a drive-through window or through takeout inside the restaurant, the precautionary measures are quite different.
- Maintain as much physical distance between yourself and the other customers as well as the restaurant staff. A distance of at least six feet is recommended.
- Wear gloves to minimize skin-to-surface contact. You can use an alcohol-based sanitizer hand sanitizer, if you don’t have gloves.
- Use contactless payments, such as debit and credit cards with tap capabilities wherein you tap the card at a terminal. There are also Apple Pay and Google Pay services where you just wave your phone at a terminal to pay your bill. You can also place the exact cash for the bill on the takeout counter, perhaps leave a tip, but avoid direct touching of hands.
- Place the food package on the floor of your car or other surfaces that will not be directly touched by others.
When you arrive at home, follow the same steps as when you have your food delivered.
In the end, we all have the responsibility to keep ourselves and other safe from the SARS-CoV-2 threat! It starts with washing your hands regularly and practicing cough etiquette.
