Big question: can we get Covid-19 from meat packing plants?

[Miigwech]

I hear of people who are doing everything right to protect themselves from getting infected. And yet, they are getting sick. So, people are getting sick in their homes ... how? If all these workers are sick inside these meat packing plants ( and now people in the fields harvesting produce, lettuce) then can those pathogens be served up in our packaged products.? Has anyone looked at if Covid -19 can be transported via our packaged meat and or produce?

[uponit7771]

1. K&R, Few if anyone has given a clear yes or no with few caveats on this question

[Miigwech]

2. We need to know the truth. They may be trying to prop up our food system

instead of reveling the real concerns. Is anyone studying this? I wonder. If not then the health officials need to do so because this may be another vector of virus spread.

[uponit7771]

11. +1, especially seeing a lot of the south getting lit up like it has.

[Jarqui]

3. I had wondered something similar. Here's an opinion

Why Meatpacking Plants Have Become Covid-19 Hot Spots
https://www.wired.com/story/why-meatpacking-plants-have-become-covid-19-hot-spots/

According to the CDC’s latest report, the chief risks to meatpackers come from being in prolonged close proximity to other workers. A thousand people might work a single eight-hour shift, standing shoulder to shoulder as carcasses whiz by on hooks or conveyor belts. Often, workers get only a second or two to complete their task before the next hunk of meat arrives. The frenzied pace and grueling physical demands of breaking down so many dead animals can make people breathe hard and have difficulty keeping masks properly positioned on their faces.
...
And meat processing plants have other unique characteristics that are trickier to modify, like the very cold temperatures and aggressive ventilation systems required to prevent meat from spoiling or getting contaminated with pathogens that cause foodborne illness. These features could also be contributing to the high rates of infection among slaughterhouse workers, says Sima Asadi, a chemical engineer at UC Davis. “Low temperatures allow the virus to stay viable outside the body for longer, increasing the survival of the virus in the air,” she says. “That really increases the risk of infection in these plants.”
...
In meatpacking plants, where air speeds typically exceed 100 times that, infectious droplets and aerosols would get pushed much farther much faster. But how these turbulent conditions might affect disease transmission is harder to predict. “In theory, those high air speeds might make the area right around an infected individual safer, by diluting the aerosol concentration. Basically, the aerosols are moving too fast to be inhaled,” says Asadi. Everywhere else, though, the risk of infection is likely to increase, because the increased air speed may transport the aerosols farther, where they can reach additional susceptible people. “It’s an easy question to ask, but a really complicated one to answer,” she continues.

Had a good friend work as a meatpacker for some time.
What the article describes of the conditions seems fairly similar.

They are finding that singing and workouts in the gym generate more particles in the air.
There are medical studies that show talking for five minutes is equivalent of a cough in terms of virion (virus particles) ejected.
Confining those virion ejections in a confined area has to increase the chances of spreading the virus - like we've seen in board meetings or restaruants.

The article once again raises the notion that 6 feet quite possibly is not enough distance apart to be safe. The Chinese found a person 4.5 metres away got infected from an infected person on a bus - for example.

The fact of the matter is that they do not know enough about this virus yet to be opening everything up. People will die for that ignorance.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Chemically, I Don't See How The Virus Survives...

...the digestion process, and it sure won't survive the cooking process.
Even mold spores are destroyed at 180F in 60 minutes.
Viruses are FAR more fragile than spores.
Early CV studies showed complete denaturation in 15 minutes at 135F. (57C)
Denaturation is a zero order reaction so every 10C doubles the reaction rate.
Typically meat is cooked at 150C at least. 200 is more common.
So, the complete denaturation would take place in 2 minutes at the low end, and 15 seconds at the high temperature end. Grilling at the surface is even hotter!
Since we're supposed to wash hands before & after handling meat, I think the physical sciences push the risk to amazingly low.
I try to do what is asked, but I'm far from perfect about it.
I question the people saying that did "everything" right. It's hard to believe one could he that vigilant every day for this long.
So, they likely got sick based upon the already accepted modes of transmission.

[Miigwech]

5. Exposure before cooking, poor food handling techniques,

food born illness, just saying.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. That's Why I Mentioned...

...hand washing before & after.
Which, actually, reinforces my point about people saying they did "everything right".
Poor food handling would be part of " everything ". So, if someone failed to handle food properly during a pandemic, it strains credulity that they did all the other precautions perfectly.
Not sure how food handling would spread the virus other than contact transmission, though.
The increasing concern on transmission is airborne. Originally, it was almost exclusively concern over contact.
Now, they're saying that was overstated.
I'm not the least bit concerned about contracting COVID from food products.
I'm extremely concerned, however, about the folks working in those plants!

[Miigwech]

8. Well, I respect your knowlegde but I still don't think

that we can be assured that no one can get Covid-19 from packaged protein ... Covid lives on protein and freezing or cooling will not kill it, only hibernate it.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. You Have That Wrong

Viral reproduction requires the pilfering of both protein & enzymes from living cells.
The lack of respiration by the cells in dead meat causes the enzymes to either denature or oxidize.
No enzymes, no viral reproduction.
Viruses oxidize at multiple oxidation attack sites in the RNA. There are several functionalities in those amino acids that are active electron donors, so high potential to oxidize, making reproduction impossible, even when a potential host presents itself. It's simply too late. The "virus" is now just an inert collection of molecules.
That's why nearly all viruses lose the potential for activity after having no host for varying periods of time.
Lastly, viruses don't hibernate. They're not alive. The only life function they simulate is reproduction. It is for this reason microbiologists consider them a lifeform. But, cold doesn't decelerate respiration or metabolic activity because none exists in the first place.
The temperature effect of entropy in viruses is simple zero order. The activation energy of those reactions is very low, so cold slows down that decay, but doesn't bring it to zero.
If you wish to scare yourself over every possibility, no matter how preposterously remote, be my guest.
But, science guides me toward worrying about the things that are likely actual threats.
You asked. No gave you a scientific response.
You dismissed it out of hand.
Seems you didn't really want an answer. So, why ask the question in the first place?

[Miigwech]

10. Thank you for this explanation

[LisaL]

7. Well, supposedly you can be infected by touching surfaces.

So you should handle meat carefully. Wash your hands before and after handling. If you cook meat, any virus should be killed.

[JI7]

12. I think it's the fact they work closely inside a closed area all day

which increases chances of infection.

same reason prisons and nursing homes have many cases of infection.

Im guessing it's tougher to put in place things like social distancing without a huge change in output.