Hygiene in food production has always been a priority, even when production occurs under crisis conditions. While the world stayed at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and maintained social distance, the food industry had to find a way to ramp up production despite the dangers to its workforce of the highly contagious disease.
Due to the necessary close proximity required for some specific food processing industries, clusters of illness occurred with some degree of regularity. Although never mutually exclusive, the health of the food processing staff and hygienic design are now even more intertwined and interdependent. As we look to a sustainable future, we must use Industry 4.0 methodologies and marry hygienic design with enablers of business continuity such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) design, production floor density reduction, increased data analysis, traceability, and repeatability.