外賣(mài)食品安全嗎?

外賣(mài)食品安全嗎?

Don Schaffner had Thai takeout for dinner a few nights ago, just as he did occasionally in the weeks and months before the current COVID-19 pandemic.

唐·沙夫納幾天前晚上吃了泰國(guó)外賣(mài)晚餐，就像他在目前的COVID-19大流行前的幾周和幾個(gè)月偶爾吃的一樣。

That's worth knowing. Schaffner is a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey whose expertise includes quantitative microbial risk assessment, predictive food microbiology, hand-washing and cross-contamination.

這是值得了解的。沙夫納是新澤西州羅格斯大學(xué)的杰出教授，專長(zhǎng)包括微生物風(fēng)險(xiǎn)定量評(píng)估、食品微生物預(yù)測(cè)、洗手和交叉污染。

"I know people are worried, but from what we know currently about the virus, it's safe to eat food prepared at restaurants so long as you take the proper precautions — in particular hand-washing," says Schaffner.

沙夫納說(shuō):“我知道人們很擔(dān)心，但是根據(jù)我們目前對(duì)這種病毒的了解，只要采取適當(dāng)?shù)念A(yù)防措施，特別是洗手，吃餐館準(zhǔn)備的食物是安全的。”

As the coronavirus spreads in the U.S. and Americans heed directives to stay home, takeout and delivery of prepared food is picking up. Many of us are wondering if eating takeout is a good idea. (Plus shouldn't we be cooking all those groceries we stocked up on?)

隨著冠狀病毒在美國(guó)的傳播，美國(guó)人聽(tīng)從指令呆在家里，外賣(mài)和熟食的快遞也在增加。我們?cè)S多人都在想，吃外賣(mài)是不是一個(gè)好主意。(另外，我們是不是應(yīng)該把要儲(chǔ)存的所有雜貨都煮一下?)

Luckily for lazy people, eating food prepared in restaurants appears to be a safe choice. Current guidance from the Food and Drug Administration states that "there is no evidence to suggest that food produced in the United States can transmit COVID-19."

幸運(yùn)的是，對(duì)于懶惰的人來(lái)說(shuō)，吃餐館里準(zhǔn)備的食物似乎是一個(gè)安全的選擇。美國(guó)食品和藥物管理局目前的指導(dǎo)意見(jiàn)稱，“沒(méi)有證據(jù)表明美國(guó)生產(chǎn)的食品可以傳播COVID-19.”

Infectious disease and food safety experts we spoke to say they base their determination that takeout food is safe on decades of research on other coronaviruses, which were first identified in humans in the 1960s.

我們采訪的傳染病和食品安全專家說(shuō)，基于幾十年來(lái)對(duì)其他冠狀病毒的研究，他們認(rèn)為外賣(mài)食品是安全的，這些病毒在20世紀(jì)60年代首次在人類身上發(fā)現(xiàn)。

"While COVID-19 is new to us, coronaviruses are not, and with all the studies done on these viruses, there has never been any information to implicate food-borne transmission," says Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine in the department of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn.

田納西州納什維爾范德比爾特大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院傳染病系的醫(yī)學(xué)教授威廉·沙夫納博士說(shuō)：“雖然我們對(duì)COVID-19還不太了解，但對(duì)冠狀病毒比較了解，隨著對(duì)這些病毒進(jìn)行的所有研究，從來(lái)沒(méi)有任何信息涉及食物傳播。”。

The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is primarily spread via droplets expelled through coughing or sneezing, says William Schaffner. If you're standing too close (within about 6 feet) to an infected person when the person coughs or sneezes, or even possibly when the person speaks or exhales, viral droplets could make their way to your nasal passages and mucous membranes. Or if you touch a surface with droplets on it and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, that could also lead to infection.

引起COVID-19的冠狀病毒主要通過(guò)咳嗽或打噴嚏時(shí)噴出的飛沫傳播，威廉·沙夫納說(shuō)。當(dāng)患者咳嗽或打噴嚏，甚至可能說(shuō)話或呼氣時(shí)，如果你站得離患者太近(約6英尺內(nèi))，病毒滴可能會(huì)進(jìn)入你的鼻腔和粘膜?；蛘撸绻憬佑|到表面有液滴的物體，然后又接觸到你的眼睛、鼻子或嘴巴，也可能導(dǎo)致感染。

William Schaffner explains that the virus is primarily risky to us when it attaches to surfaces in our respiratory tract, not when we accidentally eat it. "The virus seems to be latching onto cells in the upper reaches of the nose, a place food doesn't enter," he explains. "Virus that found its way into your gastrointestinal tract would be killed by the acid in your stomach."

威廉·沙夫納解釋說(shuō)，對(duì)我們來(lái)說(shuō)當(dāng)病毒附著在呼吸道的表面時(shí)是主要的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，而不是當(dāng)我們不小心吃掉它的時(shí)候。他解釋說(shuō):“這種病毒似乎是附著在鼻子上部的細(xì)胞上，而食物是無(wú)法進(jìn)入這個(gè)部位的。”“進(jìn)入胃腸道的病毒會(huì)被胃酸殺死。”

Several infectious disease experts whom NPR spoke to concurred that research hasn't turned up any evidence of COVID-19 spreading through food.

幾位接受美國(guó)國(guó)家公共電臺(tái)采訪的傳染病專家一致認(rèn)為，研究并沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn)任何證據(jù)表明COVID-19通過(guò)食物傳播。

"There are no published reports of linkage to food [of the novel coronavirus]," says Dr. Rachel Bender Ignacio, an associate professor of allergy and infectious diseases at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In February, the World Health Organization said the same thing, though it noted that food safety authorities are keeping an eye on the issue.

華盛頓大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院過(guò)敏癥和傳染病副教授雷切爾·本德·伊格納西奧博士表示:“目前還沒(méi)有發(fā)表過(guò)有關(guān)(這種新型冠狀病毒)與食品有關(guān)的報(bào)道。”今年2月，世界衛(wèi)生組織也說(shuō)了同樣的話，不過(guò)該組織指出，食品安全部門(mén)正在密切關(guān)注這一問(wèn)題。

While all the experts we spoke to were in agreement that restaurant food is safe to order during the COVID-19 outbreak, if you are immunocompromised or just feeling extra wary, you may want to consider ordering cooked food only rather than uncooked items such as sandwiches. Cooking at high-enough temperatures kills viruses, says Elizabeth Mills, a registered dietitian at the Villanova University College of Nursing, in Villanova, Pa.

雖然我們采訪的所有專家都同意，在COVID-19爆發(fā)期間，餐館的食物是安全的，但如果你免疫功能受損或只是感到格外謹(jǐn)慎，你可能會(huì)考慮只點(diǎn)熟食，而不是像三明治這樣的生食。賓夕法尼亞州維拉諾瓦市維拉諾瓦大學(xué)護(hù)理學(xué)院的注冊(cè)營(yíng)養(yǎng)師伊麗莎白·米爾斯說(shuō)，在足夠高的溫度下烹飪可以殺死病毒。

It's also worth noting that safe food-handling rules, required of any establishment that serves food, would also be protective against spreading the coronavirus, says Don Schaffner. These include wearing gloves, workers staying home when sick, frequent hand-washing and disinfecting of surfaces in the kitchen.

唐·沙夫納說(shuō)，同樣值得注意的是，任何食品供應(yīng)企業(yè)都必須遵守安全的食品處理規(guī)定，這也可以防止冠狀病毒的傳播。這些措施包括戴手套、員工生病時(shí)呆在家里、經(jīng)常洗手以及對(duì)廚房表面進(jìn)行消毒。