With the coronavirus COVID-19 making daily headlines, we are hearing some concerns from customers, asking if the virus might be present in supplements made from ingredients sourced from China. Governmental health authorities worldwide agree that the answer is “no”.
Here are the reasons:
Viruses do not survive long on environmental surfaces, objects, foods or even clothing.
Coronaviruses such as SARS, MERS and COVID-19 need a host (animal or human) to grow in. Otherwise, they die, typically within hours. This would explain why there have been no reported incidences of COVID-19 being passed to humans through the food chain.
We should all take the appropriate precautions in our daily lives, but that should not include avoiding products originating from China, or from any of the 82 countries* currently affected by the coronavirus, including the USA.
*Information current as of March 4, 2020.
Reliable, up-to-the-minute COVID-19 information can be found on the trusted independent online resource for statistical data, Worldometer.
Recommended Reading:
CDC’s comprehensive web resource on COVID-19
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
A common sense guide to dealing with COVID-19 from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland:
https://www.fsai.ie/faq/coronavirus.html
COVID-19 myth busters, from the World Health Organization
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters
