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.
The USDA and FDA announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to help prevent interruptions at FDA-regulated food facilities, including fruit and vegetable processing.
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.
CDC says the recommendations are steps that Smithfield Foods may want to consider implementing to address the conditions identified at the plant. The recommendations are discretionary and not required or mandated by CDC.
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