Rumor Refutation:Does eating an orange affect the accuracy of COVID-19 antigen testing?

Rumor 1 :Directly dripping orange juice into the antigen test kit will result in a positive test outcome.

/✗: Yes, indeed it is.

The reason why directly dripping orange juice into the antigen test kit will result in a positive test outcome is due to the acidity of the orange juice.

When orange juice is introduced into the antigen test strip, it disrupts the suitable pH environment, causing colloidal gold particles to aggregate and antigen-antibody non-specific binding to occur.

These precipitated colloidal gold particles deposit in the T-zone, leading to a false positive result.

Rumor 2 :Taking an orange before conducting a COVID-19 antigen self-test will cause the test result to show positive.

/✗: This is a rumor.

During antigen testing, the sampling site for nasal swabs is located within the nasal cavity, and consumption of certain foods will not affect the test results.