Can I eat oranges or cola before the COVID-19 antigen test?

Recently, a video circulated on the Internet: Someone cut an orange and squeezed the juice on the antigen test kit. Before long, a purple-red horizontal line appeared in the “T position”. Some netizens dropped cola on the antigen detection kit, and the “T position” also changed color. As a result, some people came to the conclusion that “you can’t eat oranges or drink cola before doing the antigen test, otherwise it will be positive”. is this real?

Antigen detection is based on antibodies to detect the protein components of the virus, so as to determine whether the sample to be tested contains the virus.

Antigen detection is more convenient and fast, and results are usually available in 15-20 minutes, but the sensitivity is slightly lower, and false positives may occur due to the existence of some interference. However, it cannot be said that the cola or orange antigen test is “positive” or “weak positive”, because the antigen test kit is used for human samples as mentioned in the instructions, such as nasal swabs, not cola, orange juice and other liquids.

The antigen nucleic acid detection kit has undergone a complete test before it is put on the market, including those who are infected with influenza, pneumonia or even COVID-19 pneumonia, and there will be no positive test results. The T-bit of the card is purple. And pouring cola and orange juice means that the composition of the antigen dilution is destroyed, and the result is inaccurate, so no matter what color the T position appears, it is meaningless.

In fact, drinking cola or eating oranges will not affect the antigen test results in principle. Normal diet will not affect the composition of the nasal swab sample – even if there is a small probability that some cola or orange juice will enter the nasal cavity, but usually the concentration will not be very high, completely different from the cola or orange juice dripped directly into the kit. Therefore, there is no need to worry about drinking cola, eating oranges or eating other foods to affect the antigen test results.