Eat, Drink, Live Longer: 96: COVID-19, Food Safety, and Your Questions Answered with Ben Chapman, PhD

96: COVID-19, Food Safety, and Your Questions Answered with Ben Chapman, PhD

May 5, 2021

We’ve been living with the pandemic for over a year. How in the world have we survived? There has been much confusion about doing simple things like going to the grocery store and eating out. My guest, Dr. Ben Chapman, is here with the latest on food safety and COVID. He’s answering our most pressing questions about the virus and teaching us the basics that we need to know. I hope today’s show will help you feel more comfortable and better prepared for that next grocery shopping trip or an excursion to get takeout food.

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and Food Safety Extension Specialist at NC State University. He studies pathogens and public health with the goal of less foodborne illness. He has a BS in Molecular Biology and Genetics and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Plant Agriculture. Ben’s team at NC State is involved in a cool project called FoodCoVNET, which provides evidence-based information designed to alleviate all of our fears about the food supply and community spread of the virus.

Show Highlights:

Get to know Ben, his work, and his family: Originally from Toronto, Ben has been at NC State University for 13 years; he lives in Raleigh, NC, with his two kids and his wife, who works in home design
Ben’s research and work on how people prepare food in the interest of food safety
Ben’s podcasts, Food Safety Talk and Risky or Not
The website, FoodCoVNET, which is a one-stop-shop for information and answers to our questions about food and COVID
The basics of mucous, spit, virus transmission, and the dangers of inhaling “shared air”
How noroviruses and salmonella differ from COVID in the ways they are transmitted and contracted
Why respiratory viruses like the common cold, influenza, and others don’t usually cause infection through food consumption
If you can catch the common cold by touching a germy shopping cart, why can’t you catch COVID by touching something?
Are we over-sanitizing?
If a waitress or kitchen staff coughs on your plate and food and then hands it to you, can you get sick?
Do we need to wipe down our groceries before we bring them into our home?
Does COVID-19 behave like salmonella and other food pathogens?
Is our continual sanitizing just “hygiene theater,” or will the sanitizing of public spaces continue?
How much of a risk is it to have food made by others at a group gathering?
Are the new mutations able to spread more easily by contact instead of air? Will the new variants make it safe to get takeout?
Is there any difference between eating outdoors and indoors when dining out? Once we’re all vaccinated, will it be safer to eat indoors again?
Should we call restaurants and ask what their practices are to prevent the spread of COVID?
What is happening in the meat industry that we can feel good about how and where our food is produced?
Final words on food safety and COVID: “The biggest risk in this pandemic is being around other people and shared air. These are the things that we know lead to illnesses and problems around the world. The normal everyday food safety guidelines like cleaning and sanitizing after food handling and keeping our hands clean and sanitized will go a long way in reducing our risk even further.”