COVID-19

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The recommendations address shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), cloth face coverings, disinfectants, and sanitation supplies in the food and agriculture industry in order to help maintain employee safety, continuity of the food supply, food safety, and employee/consumer confidence.

Here are resources regarding coronavirus (COVID-19) and food safety from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The document serves as a guide to help each industry operate safely as all 50 states have begun at least partially relaxing stay-at-home orders and allowing some businesses to reopen.

CDC has released a guidance document for foodservice, restaurants, and bars for safe reopening tips as the pandemic continues.

The USDA and FDA announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to help prevent interruptions at FDA-regulated food facilities, including fruit and vegetable processing.  

The guidance, based on President Donald Trump’s Opening Up America Again plan, places much focus on cleaning and disinfection practices.  

U.S. meatpacking plants are gradually reopening after putting in place guidance from CDC and OSHA.  

One of the letters directs meat and poultry processing plants that are currently closed and have no clear timetable for resuming operations to submit written documentation of their protocol to USDA.

Workers at a Smithfield Foods plant Milan, MO, have filed a lawsuit to “secure basic protective equipment and protocol changes that will stop the spread of COVID-19 in the plant and surrounding community.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have issued new guidance for the meat and poultry industry that advises creating a COVID-19 assessment and control plan.