How to Protect Yourself From
Coronavirus When Grocery Shopping
Here are precautions to take whether you shop in-store or online
With experts saying people should avoid crowded
places because of the novel coronavirus COVID-19,
how should you handle grocery shopping? One op-
tion people are turning to is grocery delivery services. bags. “It all comes down to hand hygiene,” says Liz
Garman, a spokesperson for the Association for Pro-
fessionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in
Arlington, Va.
Grocery and meal delivery services are seeing huge
spikes in business. Instacart, the largest grocery-
delivery company, reported record customer demand
in the past week. Competitors FreshDirect and Shipt
said they also were seeing big surges in orders, as
did Amazon, owner of grocery delivery services Ama-
zon Fresh and Amazon Prime Now. It also doesn’t hurt to wash your hands after opening
the containers and using their contents.
“For older people and those with underlying health
conditions, the group that the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention recommends stay home, I
would highly recommend using a grocery delivery
service,” says Jim Rogers, CR’s director of food safe-
ty research and testing.
“But if you use a pasta box a few days after you get
it, there is little likelihood that the virus could still be
live on the box and cause an infection,” says Eike
Steinmann, a virologist at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum
in Germany who has studied how long viruses live on
different surfaces.
One preliminary study found that the coronavirus re-
sponsible for the current pandemic doesn’t survive on
cardboard longer than 24 hours. Results of the study,
conducted by researchers at the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases and other experts,
But whether you buy groceries online or in stores, were published on March 17 in a letter to the editor of
there are some simple steps you can take to try to the New England Journal of Medicine.
limit your exposure to coronavirus, and they’re not so
different from what CR recommends you typically do. Wash your hands, counter, and other surfaces you’ve
Be sure to:
touched. Do this after you’ve put away the groceries.
Keep in mind that using a disinfectant isn’t necessary
Wash nonporous containers. The FDA says there’s unless you’re sharing a space with someone who is
no current evidence to support the transmission of the exhibiting signs of respiratory illness or has been ex-
virus from food packaging. But if you’re concerned, it posed to the virus.
can’t hurt to wipe down non-porous containers like
glass or cans with disinfectant wipes.
Wash produce. Rubbing fruit and vegetables under
running water and scrubbing those with hard
If that’s not practical, wash your hands well after put- skins can help remove pesticides.
ting away all packaging, including paper boxes and