The recent spread of vaccine conspiracy theories has led to misleading posts online suggesting that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are being added to the food supply through livestock and produce. However, experts confirm that there are no COVID-19 vaccines in your steak or salad. Misinformation purveyors have distorted the limited use of RNA-based vaccines in animals and research into using plants to grow proteins used in vaccines. The notion that an mRNA vaccine could be transmitted to humans through eating meat is not rooted in science. mRNA vaccines have a very short duration in living organisms and degrade quickly. It is also unlikely that they would survive the cooking process to hypothetically be passed along to consumers. Additionally, regulators require a minimum amount of time to pass between a food animal getting a vaccine and entering the food chain. There is no evidence to support the notion that COVID-19 vaccines are being added to produce, and the concept of producing edible vaccines is far from being proven. Researchers have explored the possibility of growing edible vaccines, but it would require much more work, including trials and approvals, before it could even theoretically enter the market. This article aims to address the misinformation surrounding COVID-19 vaccines in the food supply and provide factual context to misleading content circulating online.
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