Anyone knowledge about the probabilities of getting infected from takeout / delivered food? Either via handling at the restaurant itself or en route. All indications are that the virus can survive quite a while on smooth surfaces like plastic bags.
> Twelve percent of workers said they worked when they were sick with vomiting or diarrhea on two or more shifts during the last year.
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/ehsnet/plain_language/food-work...
I began trying to encourage people to get takeout because I heard staff talking about cutting staff hours because their sales are so bad. The local Denny's, normally open 24 hours, is only open 8am to 8pm. I saw one guy there working the register. There's normally multiple staff during the day.
source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-are-the-risks-of-food-and-...
Wash your hands before you touch anything else and then when you grab the food out of the oven you should be in the clear
Things get eaten promptly.
We typically order as close to exactly as much as we will eat. We rarely keep leftovers.
Trash always goes out promptly after the meal is finished. I don't even own a trash can.
Everyone washes hands promptly.
If there was an incident and we feel things are contaminated, we don't keep empty bags, leftover condiments, etc either. If everything is clean, we are willing to keep such things.
There are some articles on HN talking about how long it can live on surfaces. You could use the search function to dig some up.
Edit: here's one:
At the moment studies prove the virus stays in the air for a while but I couldn't find out whether it stays on surfaces or moving stuff makes it fly.
I stopped even buying bread a month ago in my country when there were zero official cases for fear of contamination.
Any info or procedure to make life easier is most welcome.
I don't like delivery and rarely get food delivered (sometimes in hotels). I've read stories about delivery drivers sampling the food or otherwise not protecting it from germs.
If you use Little Caesar's pizza portal, you pull it out of a warming oven yourself. Since it is in a warming oven, I'm guessing the heat will kill the germs.
If you don't have other procedures in place already to handle other issues, I think Little Caesar's pizza portal is the safest "don't need to know much about germ control" option.
If a place has staff that has bad habits, I stop going.
I use self checkout and similar whenever possible.
I usually pay with a card, not cash. Cash tends to be nasty stuff, especially paper money.
I like my food super fresh. I like Little Caesar's in part because they make the dough fresh in house daily. No other major American pizza chain dies that and I tolerate their pizza better than other major chains. I can eat it more consistently, in part because the dough is fresh.
Spices are medicinal. If you are concerned the food is a threat, order spicy foods or add spices. For pizza, red peppers are usually available in store.
If you have no idea what is safe, skip getting paper napkins and trash all extra condiments and the like immediately. Don't keep them around.
Take the trash out of the house immediately to whatever outside trash can you use. Promptly clean up thoroughly afterwards.
Edit:
I will add that staff at eateries are usually better trained in germ control than staff at most other establishments. Cashiers at other stores are a much bigger hazard in my experience and I do my best to use self checkout whenever possible because cashiers are so awful about doing things like licking their fingers to separate bags. You see that much less often in eateries in my experience.
I bet we could enhance containment by just passing and enforcing strict rules for germ control for all cashiers. They are the absolute bane of my existence.
Also, I've been baking my own bread and pizza. When in a lock down, it's a great pastime.
Take care!
Isn't this protection against bacteria, not virus (virii?) ?