Restaurants are getting desperate and innovative.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

In the last few days, I've gotten emails from several local restaurants offer things like curbside pickup and even delivery from places I never dreamed of....Cracker Barrel and Texas Roadhouse.

Sadly, that does not guarantee what's inside the bag is safe.

Many others have sent emails to assure customers their practices are safe......as best they know.

I told my son who I'm isolated with if we get carry out, it must be something we can reheat to a point known to neutralize this virus but we have not yet got brave enough to try anything.

I'm thinking pizza or pulled-pork BBQ........

[Salviati]

1. Anything you can pop in the oven and bring up to at least 165 should be perfectly safe

I haven't started ordering takeout/delivery yet. Figured I'd wait a bit, maybe be part of a second wave of people doing that (Though if we do get some sort of universal cash disbursement, I've decided I'm going to spend it all on local business like that...)

[KY_EnviroGuy]

5. Yes, I'm thinking it best to wait a while....

hoping people become more conscientious and learn best practices.

I've been researching the proper times and temperatures for neutralizing this virus (they call it "denaturing" ) but unfortunately, I don't think much as been done specific to this virus.

However, there are some good papers done on the first SARS virus and many claim this one is very similar. I'm seeing suggested temperatures between 150F and boiling but with dwell times as long as 30-minutes. I'm hoping to find something more definitive for Covid-19.

What I have seen is in line with what you said but I've seen a lot of variance in professional papers on the subject...

[emmaverybo]

2. Good article on food, delivery, groceries :

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/20/health/food-safety-groceries-coronavirus-wellness/index.html

Seems respiratory viruses not food borne, according to FDA. You of course do what you feel safe doing.

[Fla Dem]

10. Thanks for the link. Good article.

[katusha]

3. you can always ask them to undercook

so you can heat, and i think microwave is best, not sure but i think the radiation of the microwave is best way to heat/sterilize. if they undercook it and you finsih in the microwave it might be pretty close to having in restaurant.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

6. Good idea, thanks! Cook it "light".

n/t

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Pizza from Papa Murphy's is a good bet.

You bake it at home.

There is one near me, next to the Super Clips where I got a haircut earlier today. It was open, and the sign on the outside said no more than three customers inside at any one time. You could always call ahead with your order and just walk in and pick it up. No waiting.

[GusBob]

9. I have to ask

Do you still think this CV stuff was over hyped?

[RockCreek]

7. What about cold?

Do we know if freezing kills CV?

I ordered 3 pints of ice cream from a local independent shop today, with a specific pick up time assigned from their to go window. The person working (the owner) had not yet scooped one of my pints. I watched her dive into the freezer with nothing over her mouth, and no gloves on, as she scooped and packed my ice cream.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

8. It's my understanding.....

both viruses and bacteria are preserved with cold for quite a long period of time. So no, I wouldn't trust anything directly exposed to workers without proper protection, even hot foods because they involve someone packaging them prior to hand-off to customers. Cold foods would be the highest risk.

I'm still studying the professional papers on past research I've bookmarked, some of which make my head spin.

Our public needs to have very clear guidance in layman's terms on food safety but this being a brand-new virus to science means we're winging it for now to some degree.

[Fla Dem]

11. According to the article linked above, your digestive system should

eliminate any virus,

”Even more comforting news: Even if you did eat food with the virus, there are not many receptors in the digestive track for the virus to cling to, so swallowing the virus would not likely lead to contracting the illness.”