Microbiologist & Son Team-up to Find High-Touch Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Are Safe to Consume Despite Pandemic
West Chester University Interim Vice Provost and Associate Dean of the College of
the Sciences and Mathematics Vishal Shah, a microbiologist, teamed-up with his young
son, Anand Shah, a student at Charles F. Patton Middle School in Kennett Square, to
study fresh fruits and vegetables found in open-air bins of area grocery stores. The
team’s goal was timely and ambitious --- to confirm guidance provided by the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that touching
and handling of food with the Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) on the surface would
not contribute to the spread of the virus. The team’s findings enable shoppers to
breathe a sigh of relief.
As indicated in their study, which was published in ACS Food Science and Technology, the local scientists discovered that a high presence of the virus was not found on the surface of fruits and vegetables examined, and that the guidelines of regulatory agencies are adequate; fruits and vegetables in grocery stores are not the major source of spread of the virus in the community.
The father-son team came to this conclusion by studying ten grocery stores in Philadelphia and neighboring counties throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. High-touch open fruits and vegetables (apples, asparagus, avocado, bananas, broccoli, carrots, garlic, grapes, lemon, lettuce, onions, pears, potatoes, and tomatoes) were purchased on Sunday, December 6, 2020 during the peak hours of 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. On the day of the sampling, all of the counties had high levels of community spread of the virus. At least five individual fruits and vegetables, none of which were pre-packaged, were purchased from each store. For each fruit or vegetable from a given store, five individual items were selected and each was swabbed five times using the same swab. Grocery bags from individual stores served as controls. Swabs were analyzed for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 by Assured Bio Labs, Tennessee.
Of the 140 fruits and vegetables tested from ten stores, ten samples could not be
included in the result analysis due to the presence of certain pesticides or other
chemicals present on the surface of the produce. Viral analysis of the swab samples
from the fruits and vegetables obtained from nine stores showed no presence of the
virus on the surface. SARS-CoV-2 was confirmed, however, on the surface of only one
produce (apple) from a single store at the concentration of 11 genomic equivalents/swab.
No control samples showed the presence of the virus.
According to Shah, “Our research shows that there is not a high presence of the virus on the surface of fruits and vegetables in grocery stores. The guidelines provided by regulatory agencies are, therefore, adequate. Fruits and vegetables in grocery stores are not the major source of spread of the virus in the community. Nevertheless, there is a small chance that a person can expose themselves to SARS-CoV-2 by touching the surfaces of fruits and vegetables. Considering this, we recommend either using hand sanitizer or washing hands after handling produce.”
In addition to the father-son team, the scientific study was also performed with Edward Sobek, Assured Bio Labs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.