So I just bought a package of Foster Farms chicken legs this morning

[panader0]

and now hear that one of their plants have been closed due to covid.
If I cook it on the grill am I safe?
Is there a way to find out where your chicken came from?
I had big plans for those legs......

[Kali]

1. cook 'em up they will be fine

but it may rain (knock on wood)

[panader0]

5. I got a pretty good one yesterday.

Filled up all the mud puddles in the road.

[Kali]

9. dang! we had almost nothing all August

Saturday we had a half inch at the house, 8/10 about a mile up the canyon and 7/100 down where we actually need some rain

nice and cool today so far, but I hope we get some action this afternoon.

[jcgoldie]

2. I dont think it can live in the meat like that

Everything I've read says up to 2 or 3 days on hard surfaces but the food isn't an issue even though I find that somewhat counter-intuitive.

[PJMcK]

22. It's a virus not a bacteria

Covid-19 isn't "alive" so the moist surface of food is not a more attractive place for it than a restaurant table.

[Groundhawg]

3. You should be fine

Cook to proper temperature. The workers always wear gloves as well.

[Sogo]

4. First off, wash the package with soap and water.

https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/will-cooking-food-kill-coronavirus


Does cooking food kill coronavirus?

Again, while experts maintain that the new coronavirus is not a foodborne pathogen, it's still a good idea to cook food to the proper internal temperatures—and doing so would also likely reduce any amount of virus on the food, says Sheldon Campbell, MD, PhD, a Yale Medicine pathologist who is the associate director of Yale Medicine’s Clinical Microbiology Lab. There is, of course, on exception to that: “[As long as] the food isn’t contaminated by handling after it cools," he adds.

Urvish Patel, MPH, medical advisor for eMediHealth, explains that many viruses in general are heat-sensitive, and coronaviruses in particular tend to survive for shorter periods of time at higher temperatures and higher levels of humidity than in cooler, dryer environments. Of course, because SARS-CoV-2 is so new, there's no current data or studies to establish a temperature-based cutoff for inactivation, but that it will likely act very similarly to other coronaviruses.

Patel also adds that, because of this, "all measures should be taken care of considering standard guidelines for food cooking." According to the CDC, those proper temperature guidelines for cooking—which not only prevent the growth of viruses but also bacteria on foods—include internal temperatures of:

145°F for whole cuts of beef, pork, veal, and lamb
160°F for ground meats, such as beef and pork
165°F for all poultry, including ground chicken and turkey
165°F for leftovers and casseroles
145°F for fresh ham (raw)
145°F for finfish or cook until flesh is opaque

[efhmc]

7. The packaging presents more of a problem than the chicken itself.

so follow what Sogo posted and enjoy your food.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. There are codes that identify the plant, and you could check f there's a recall. But...

heat kills the virus so you should be ok.

WHO says 138 degrees F kills it and you know you're gonna get it a lot hotter.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. You're fine. The virus can't live that long on either packaging or meat.

[LisaL]

11. It could live on plastic for days. Longer at cold temperatures.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. The likelihood of it being alive and viable at levels enough to infect someone would be low enough

to not spend time worrying about it.

[LisaL]

10. High temperatures should kill the virus.

Be careful with the packaging.

[panader0]

19. I plan on barbecuing the packaging too!

[DBoon]

12. You are much more likely to die from salmonella than Covid

your cooking process should reflect real risks.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. There's zero evidence that the virus is passed on surfaces.

Zero. Which is why all the sanitizing people are doing is essentially meaningless. You don't want to be breathing the same air as someone who is currently shedding the virus.

[Kaleva]

18. It isn't meaningless because experts say they can't say for sure.

It's better to play it safe.

"The problem is we often can't definitively say how someone becomes infected, Dr Mackay points out.

Importantly, the risk is not zero and surface transmission could play a role when we see COVID-19 spread through a household.

When people become infected in a shared environment it's likely a mix of breathing and coughing around each other and touching the same surfaces, says Catherine Bennett, head of epidemiology at Deakin University.

While washing your hands is imperative when you use a surface immediately after someone, maintaining physical distance is just as important, Professor Bennett says."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-08-03/coronavirus-has-science-changed-surface-transmission-covid-19/12512720

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. The experts say that there's no evidence that the virus is passed on surfaces.

Just because they can detect some genetic material can be detected hours or days after someone has touched or perhaps coughed on the surface, is not the same as getting infected. If it were being passed that way it would have been blindingly obvious by now.

From that very article:

There is no current evidence that anyone has become infected by ingesting the virus in, or on, food or drink.

[Kaleva]

23. And they say it's better to be on the safe side because it can't be ruled out.

Earlier this year there was much debate if masks were effective or not. A few of us DUers bought masks, I bought masks in late January while they were still cheap and available , while others here kept saying masks were useless and there was no proof that they'd be effective against COVID-19.

Washing hands, using hand sanitizer when washing isn't doable and disinfecting surfaces is simple to do, doesn't take much time and it's now become routine for me.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

24. Nor can we rule out an asteroid striking Earth next week

and killing us all.

[Kaleva]

25. That can be pretty much ruled out given the Earth's long history with asteroid impacts.

Our experience with COVID-19 doesn't have such a long history.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

26. You are absolutely right.

But the short history with Covid-19 does not show any cases of people contracting the virus from surfaces.

Even the re-infection possibility simply isn't that scary. I've seen one report where someone had it worse the second time, and another where the second time was asymptomatic. Actually, the whole asymptomatic thing is what is scary. It does look like the vast majority of those who get the virus have few or no symptoms although they can pass it on to others. Which is why everyone needs to wear masks and avoid large gatherings of people, especially indoors.

This is not going to go away very soon. That much I'm confident of.

[Kaleva]

15. It's sad what happens to Foster chickens that can't be placed in a loving home.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

16. Covid is killed by extra spicy barbecue sauce. This is common knowledge. nt

[panader0]

20. Part of my plan. We think alike.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Totally Safe

Make sure you wash hands before & after touching the raw chicken, which you probably do anyway.
A little science to make you feel safe:
This virus denatures in air at 135°F in 15 minutes, or 900 seconds. 135°F is around 58°C.
The denaturation reactions are zero or first order. Because of this, the reaction rate doubles every 10°C.
Say your cooking temperature is 375°F, or around 190°C.
This is 13 ten degree increments.
The reaction rate increases by 2^13, or 8,192 fold.
At 375°F, if would take under 100 milliseconds to fully denature the virus.
Pretty sure you're not cooking your chicken for under a tenth of a second!
Cook it, and you'll be safe!