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SINGAPORE – An ongoing study by local researchers found that the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, can survive, in high enough quantities, in frozen fish, chicken and pork for three weeks at refrigerated temperatures.
Co-led by Dr. Danielle Anderson, Scientific Director of the ABSL3 Laboratory at the Duke-NUS School of Medicine, in collaboration with Professor Dale Fisher from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, the study was conducted to test the “longevity and infectivity of Sars-CoV-2” in refrigerated and frozen foods.
Large amounts of the virus were used to infect pieces of salmon, chicken and pork from local supermarkets.
The samples were stored at three different temperatures: 4 degrees C (refrigeration temperature), -20 degrees C (freezer temperature) and -80 degrees C (freezer temperature that is generally used in laboratories to preserve the virus) respectively.
The samples were then collected at specific time points that reflect the food transportation times. It was found that the virus was able to survive and remain infectious at refrigeration and freezing temperatures, ie 4 ° C and -20 ° C respectively, for three weeks.
As such, it is possible for the virus to survive transport and storage, which occur in controlled environments with constant levels of temperature and humidity, comparable to those in a laboratory.
The study also noted that an infected food handler could be an index case of a new outbreak, and such an event, while unlikely, could still occur from time to time.
The team recently received a research grant from the World Health Organization to further their study. They are now testing smaller amounts of virus in food packaging to reproduce a more “natural” situation, in which transmission occurs through an infected worker contaminating food or its packaging.
They are also studying the possibility of infection by consuming food contaminated with the Covid-19 virus.
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