Maria Corradini, one of the study's authors and an associate professor at the University of Guelph’s department of food science, said the results add to the growing evidence that transmission of coronavirus via surfaces is “very improbable.”

This means practices that were adopted by some in the early days of the pandemic, such as wiping down your groceries when you bring them home or letting them sit out in the cold for hours are not necessary.

“We can have some peace of mind and engage with our groceries like we used to before,” Corradini told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.

For the study, researchers collected 957 samples from four different grocery stores in Ontario in October and November 2020. The grocery stores were located in urban and suburban locations across southern Ontario, meaning all were serving population-dense areas, and were located in COVID-19 “hot zones,” the study said.

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