key: cord-0823371-5dqqlf80 authors: Duda-Chodak, Aleksandra; Lukasiewicz, Marcin; Zięć, Gabriela; Florkiewicz, Adam; Filipiak-Florkiewicz, Agnieszka title: Covid-19 pandemic and food: Present knowledge, risks, consumers fears and safety date: 2020-09-09 journal: Trends Food Sci Technol DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2020.08.020 sha: 3dc7495ff8f30738580d2dd60e41b7f5faa4090c doc_id: 823371 cord_uid: 5dqqlf80 BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is a pandemic disease that has paralyzed social life and the economy around the world since the end of 2019, and which has so far killed nearly 300,000 people. The rapidity of its spread and the lack of detailed research on the course and methods of transmission significantly impede both its eradication and prevention. SCOPE AND APPROACH: Due to the high transmission rate and fatality resulting from COVID-19 disease, the paper focus on analyzing the current state of knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 as well as its potential connection with food as a source of pathogen and infection. KEY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: There is currently no evidence (scientific publications, WHO, EFSA etc.) that COVID-19 disease can spread directly through food and the human digestive system. However, according to the hypothesis regarding the primary transmission of the virus, the source of which was food of animal origin (meat of wild animals), as well as the fact that food is a basic necessity for humans, it is worth emphasizing that food can, if not directly can be a carrier of the virus. Particular attention should be paid to this indirect pathway when considering the potential for the spread of an epidemic and the development of prevention principles. contrast to SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV, direct human-to-human transmission 304 has not been reported for the other four HCoVs (Yin & Wunderink, 2018) . This difference is 305 highly significant in terms of how much potential a virus has to cause a pandemic. In 2012 306 MERS did not become a pandemic disease because the peak of virus shedding occurs after the 307 onset of symptoms, which means that public health measures, such as isolating people with with influenza, the archetypal pandemic disease, the majority of virus transmission occurs 315 before the host realizes that they are ill (Daly, 2017). The same applies to SARS-CoV-2. Phylogenetic analyses have revealed that SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV have high 317 nucleotide sequence homology (79% -82%), and this was the highest sequence identity 318 among the six other known pathogenic HCoVs (P. Zhou et al., 2020) . However, the 319 coronavirus strains isolated from animals seem to be more closely related to SARS-CoV-2. The high diversity of coronaviruses is attributable to their potentially high mutation there were 40 which changed the biochemical properties of the amino acid, and could 471 therefore be associated with better virus adaptation. This is consistent with the study of higher translational efficiencies for the Type II strains than for Type I. This enabled faster 474 production of Type II virus particles resulting in easier spread and leading to its becoming the 475 dominant strain, implying that Type II is more transmissible than Type I. This might explain 476 why Type II strains were more prevalent in Wuhan. All these results suggest that CoV (RaTG13), the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of this pangolin virus is identical to that 528 of SARS-CoV-2 in all 6 of the key amino acids. It is highly probable that the bat virus jumped 529 to humans several months before the outbreak was detected, but was not highly infectious. 530 Some studies proved that substitution of one or more amino acids in S protein is enough for To date, the detailed SARS-CoV-2 infection pathways are still unclear, but studies 555 indicate the possibility of virus entry not only through the respiratory system but also the 556 digestive tract. This is due to the fact that the SARS-CoV-2 entry receptor, ACE2, shows It was suspected that exhaled air from both the nose and mouth is able to mix with air in the breathing zone of another person standing nearby (e.g. doctors at the bedside, customers in a store or restaurant, travelers on public transport) (Tang et al., 2006) . So wearing a protective 776 face mask was recommended in many countries as a preventive measure. But a big problem is 777 the lack of clinical trials on the impact of masks on viral infection rates. Wearing a face mask 778 probably does not prevent coronavirus infection, but can limit infectious aerosols spreading. Either way, an infected individual causes the virus to spread, either directly (touching various 780 objects) or by producing an infectious aerosol which settles on surfaces (fomites). 808 It seems reasonable to consider tightening preventive measures primarily in food stores. 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