On Tuesday, March 24, Gov. Gretchen 

Whitmer released a stay-at-home executive 

order for all individuals in Michigan. Exceptions 

include those who require groceries and living 

essentials, as well as workers who are essential 

to sustain and protect life or those required 

to maintain basic business operations. Among 

those businesses still running are grocery stores 

and restaurants. However, you may be confused 

about the general guidelines that should be 

followed in terms of public and food safety in 

times of a pandemic. 

Is it actually safe for restaurants to continue to 

prepare food? Should you support local restaurant 

businesses, or would that put restaurant 

employees and delivery drivers at risk? What is 

the best way to go grocery shopping during the 

pandemic? What should be the procedure for 

cleanliness and hygiene? 

To answer those questions, here are your 

guidelines for the coronavirus and food safety 

throughout the pandemic, based on my research.

What should I know about the coronavirus?

The coronavirus causing the current COVID-

19 pandemic is called SARS-CoV-2. It bears a 

close resemblance to its cousins SARS-CoV-1 

(the coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS 

outbreak) and MERS-CoV (the one that caused 

the 2012 MERS outbreak). Though SARS-CoV-2 

resembles previous existing coronaviruses, it is 

a novel virus — information about the virus is 

constantly developing as many researchers are 

learning more about it.

Here’s something that we do know: the 

coronavirus is NOT the flu. While both the 

coronavirus and the flu are respiratory diseases, 

the coronavirus is in a completely different family 

of viruses than the flu. COVID-19 possesses 

different symptoms (assuming a person is not 

asymptomatic) while being capable of spreading 

and killing more quickly and efficiently than the 

flu.

How does the coronavirus spread?

As a respiratory virus, the coronavirus spreads 

primarily through your respiratory system. The 

Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention 

states that the main form of transmission of the 

coronavirus is through inhalation of respiratory 

droplets that are produced whenever an infected 

person coughs or sneezes. The transmission can 

be exacerbated through close contact (less than 

six feet distance) among individuals. 

While the most contagious people are thought 

to be those who are sickest, it’s important to note 

that the spread of the coronavirus is also possible 

from those who have not yet shown COVID-19 

symptoms.

Currently, there is little to no evidence that 

the coronavirus can spread through means other 

than aerosolization. While transmission could 

theoretically occur through contact with recently 

contaminated surfaces, sources such as the 

German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment 

(BfR) state that this would be extremely unlikely 

as coronaviruses themselves are relatively 

unstable within the outside environment. 

How long can the coronavirus survive on 

common surfaces?

A study published by The New England 

Journal of Medicine indicates that aerosolized 

coronavirus can survive within air for up to three 

hours. On cardboard surfaces, that time increases 

to 24 hours. On stainless steel surfaces as well as 

plastics, that time increases to three days. 

This means that any time an infected 

individual coughs or sneezes on an item 

(including asymptomatic employees of essential 

businesses), the virus is likely to remain active 

and viable on that item for longer than if it were 

to be in the air. This may include items such as 

cardboard delivery boxes or plastic take-out 

containers. Luckily, the concentration of viable 

viruses will decrease quickly in the beginning 

and slowly approach a concentration of zero. 

Sources such as the BfR state that chances 

of transmission via contaminated objects 

still remain low because of the virus’s innate 

instability towards outside elements — due to the 

logarithmic decay of viable viruses. However, 

practices such as washing your hands after 

handling outside mail and packages as well as 

transferring food contents from grocery stores 

and restaurants, when applicable, can help 

further reduce the innate viral load that you may 

pick up from outside items. 

Can you contract COVID-19 from contaminated 

food?

Multiple sources such as the European Food 

Safety Authority and the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture find no current evidence to suggest 

that the coronavirus can be transmitted through 

food packaging or the food itself. The U.S. Food 

and Drug Administration defines a food-borne 

outbreak as an event that occurs when individuals 

get the same disease through the ingestion of the 

same contaminated food. 

A 2018 study indicates that the transmission 

route of respiratory diseases closely resembles 

the current transmission trajectory and patterns 

of the novel coronavirus. Government action 

from Singapore and South Korea that has tracked 

known infected individuals has noted that many 

of these individuals that have contracted the 

coronavirus are clustered together — which 

corroborates the 2018 study.

What are my risks of contracting COVID-19 

from cooking at home, delivery or takeout?

Your likelihood of contracting COVID-19 

is tied to your proximity to and frequency of 

interactions with others. In other words, you are 

more likely to come into contact with multiple 

individuals when you decide to order takeout 

as opposed to ordering delivery of groceries or 

cooking at home.

Restaurants and other food providers are 

under strict federal and state regulations in terms 

of proper hygiene within a professional setting. 

Restaurants who do not follow these regulations 

face severe consequences ranging from public 

posted notices to complete shutdowns. 

Within Ann Arbor, restaurant signs alerting 

residents of their takeout or delivery only policies 

also tend to state that they are committed to 

adding extra precautions such as wearing gloves 

and utilizing hand sanitizers on top of keeping 

and regulating the high hygiene standards as 

required for most foodservice industries.

There are risks associated with groceries and 

cooking at home. Restaurants and restaurant 

workers tend to follow a higher safety standard 

than that of the average supermarket and grocery 

store worker. Following certain guidelines can 

help reduce the likelihood of contracting the 

coronavirus — treat all items taken from outside 

your home (such as packages and groceries) as 

potentially contaminated. Wash your hands 

after bringing in outside items as well as before, 

during and after cooking, sanitize all containers/

products and transfer products to clean 

containers. 

Jeffrey VanWingen, a doctor at Grand 

Rapids’s Family Medicine Specialists, offers a 

detailed video guide on how to best sterilize your 

groceries in the midst of the pandemic.

Monday, April 6, 2020 — 6
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

BRENDON CHO
Daily Food Columnist

COVID-19 and food: a consumer’s guide for the pandemic

DAILY FOOD COLUMN

“I can’t stand the rain, outside my window 

/ Bringing back sweet memories,” Ann 

Peebles sang in 1974, and the world of soul 

and hip hop changed forever. The song those 

lyrics belong to, “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” is a 

masterpiece on its own, a mesmerizing romp 

through memory and heartache told through 

Peebles’s unmistakably raspy vocals. “I Can’t 

Stand the Rain” is the title track of her 1974 

album, an effort that brought her to 25 on the 

US R&B charts and established her innovative 

storytelling and song structure as a mainstay 

of music production for years to come. The 

thing is, Peeble’s story doesn’t end at her own 

music, nor at her own successes throughout a 

life of respect in the industry — she’s one of the 

most-sampled artists in hip-hop history. Now, 

I’m listening to her beautiful songs as they 

were meant to be heard: on their own. She’s 

a well-kept secret that deserves to be less of a 

secret.

The most striking sampling of Peebles’s 

work is with this very song, worked into Missy 

Elliott’s hit “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).” Yeah, 

that song. The one with the video where Missy 

seems to be wearing a bicycle helmet on her 

head and a garbage bag on her body. The hook 

in the background of “Beep beep, who got 

the keys to my Jeep?” is not actually Missy 

herself, but Peebles. The song also shows up 

in “Rain” by Mick Jenkins, “Demolitions” by 

Kaytranada, and according to whosampled.

com (a truly amazing resource for curious 

hip-hop minds), 18 other songs. And those are 

just the songs that used enough of Peebles’s 

original track to pay royalties — you can only 

imagine the amount of SoundCloud rappers 

who have taken one snare or pitched-up the 

initial hook from the song and dropped it into 

their own mixes.

Peebles’s discography was a goldmine for 

the earliest master samplers; we’re talking the 

real big ones, like J Dilla, GZA of the Wu-Tang 

Klan and those bracing electronica and hip-hop 

like Gramatik. It didn’t stop at “I Can’t Stand 

the Rain,” but branched into songs of hers 

like “Trouble, Heartaches and Sadness” from 

an earlier album, which is featured on GZA’s 

incredible track “Shadowboxin’.” Though that 

use of Peebles’s work in particular only takes 

a small portion of the original material and 

integrates it into the new mix, it’s the groove 

of songs like “Trouble” that makes her music 

so incredibly good for samples. 

She 
manages 
to 
infuse 
a 
sense 
of 

dancehall bounce into even the saddest, most 

heartbreaking soul songs, her voice both 

soothing and worn-down from years of truth-

telling, perfectly merging with the playful 

’70s instrumentation that characterized her 

earliest work. That’s what makes her music 

so catchy, even out of context — every track 

in the mix has that groove, even isolated from 

the rest of the song. The vocals are beautiful 

alone, but so are the horns, the keyboard 

track, the chimes, the drums and the cymbal 

that only crashes once. It’s like Peebles had 

imagined each line on its own and then layered 

them, creating beautiful songs that are just 

as beautiful when separated as they are put 

together. 

Even if you don’t recognize what parts 

of her songs have been woven into other 

favorites of yours, listening to Ann Peebles 

is always worth it. On her own, without any 

of the knowledge of her incredible history of 

sampling, she is a force to be reckoned with in 

her own era of soul and R&B, merging the sass 

of an artist like Aretha Franklin with the ease 

of Minnie Riperton. Her voice is unmistakable, 

her groove can make you dance even if you’re 

crying at the same time. Maybe you’ve heard 

her before without knowing it, but once you 

do, you can’t go back — she’s everywhere, not 

just in the rain.

MUSIC NOTEBOOK
What I’m Listening To: Ann Peebles, a secret kept too well

CLARA SCOTT
Daily Arts Writer

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

