With the rapid spread of COVID-19 happening far and wide, Intertek Alchemy released a new training course in March for the frontline workers in the food processing industry. This new course trains food industry workers how to recognize symptoms, how to prevent transmission, and effective measures to mitigate the spread of the disease. Intertek Alchemy has made the course available to every company, not just its client, at no charge.

Nearly 15,000 food production facilities use Intertek Alchemy for training frontline workers who come into contact with food products (and each other). As such, Intertek Alchemy recognizes its responsibility to make best practices on this new infectious virus available immediately. As with all its training courses, Intertek Alchemy worked closely with its Industry Advisory Board to ensure the most practical and applicable training is provided.

Alchemy has delivered the new course, "COVID-19: Overview," to its 15,000 client facilities. Non-clients are able to download the course for free at: https://www.alchemysystems.com/content/covid19-training-course/

“We realized that no other company could effectively reach as many frontline food manufacturing workers as we could,” said Laura Dunn Nelson, VP of food safety and global alliances at Intertek Alchemy. “And we felt a responsibility to do this as quickly as possible, giving our clients the ability to engage with their workforces to understand their role in the continued production of our food supply during the COVID-19 outbreak.”

While the food supply does not appear to be at risk, Intertek Alchemy proceeded to help keep it that way while alleviating fears among food workers and average Americans. Since these workers cannot work from home, the course places emphasis on not spreading COVID-19 between each other to ensure food production companies can continue producing the products that supply our grocery stores and restaurants. The FDA issued a statement on 2/27/20 stating: “We are not aware of any reports at this time of human illnesses that suggest COVID-19 can be transmitted by food or food packaging. However, it is always important to follow good hygiene practices (i.e., wash hands and surfaces often, separate raw meat from other foods, cook to the right temperature, and refrigerate foods promptly) when handling or preparing foods.”

While this course is new, Intertek Alchemy's standard course library includes a number of courses that help food companies keep their food products safe and employees healthy, including: "Effective Hand Washing Techniques," "Promoting Personal Hygiene," "Visitor Procedures," as well as courses specific to Listeria, Salmonella, and other microorganisms.