In a recent “FSMA Friday” webinar, hosted by Safety Chain and The Acheson Group, Dr. Ben Miller, senior director-food safety for the Acheson Group brought hundreds of listeners up to speed on the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak in the U.S, which at that time had only affected fewer than a couple dozen people. The spread is currently over 16,000 cases in the U.S. with New York State alone reporting more than 7,000 cases and 38 deaths. The next FSMA Friday update is scheduled for 27 March 2019 at 12:00 noon (Eastern Time in the U.S.).
While the infection continues to spread exponentially, Miller suggested that food companies should perform due diligence with suppliers, even though the risk of virus transmission in the supply chain is low. The larger risk is staffs being cut short due to workers calling in sick with the virus, causing supply chain interruptions. Miller advised that processors will need to identify alternate suppliers to have consistent inputs; however, other processors will be doing the same, which can make locating these sources more difficult.