No, Ordering Food Delivery Online Won't Protect You From Getting Sick

In the time of coronavirus, we all still have to eat. As people fear gathering in large spaces, online food delivery orders are going up, but food writer Corby Kummer told Boston Public Radio on Tuesday there's likely no benefit to online ordering, in fact you may just be putting the couriers at risk.

Kummer said various companies are instituting protocols to leave food at the door, instead of interacting directly with customers.

"One irony is, people who are ordering are really worried about coming into contact with these deliverers, so they're saying 'Keep them out I don't want them contaminating me,'" said Kummer. "But it’s much more dangerous for the workers because they're going to house after house, door knob after door knob."

While you may be able to control more external factors in your own home than in a restaurant, the food prepared through an online order still goes through the same preparation it would through a seated restaurant experience.

"People think when they get online food delivery it's going to be perfectly safe, but if somebody is going to sneeze into your food in a restaurant, the the same food prep worker is making your online delivery, so as far as risk from getting something from somebody sneezing into your food, it's just as bad."

Kummer's solution? If you're healthy and you're hungry, go outside and support a local industry.

"I say it's a time to go out to restaurants. Until people are restricted ... you should be keeping these businesses alive," he said. "It’s a false rationale to think that you’re protecting yourself by ordering online, because plenty of hands are touching the food that come to you and the groceries that come to you."

Corby Kummer is executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy