Categories: Articles, Business & Commerce, Food Safety and Production, Resources for Attorneys, Resources for Experts, Safety How the Food Industry is Managing COVID-19 TASA ID: 18725 The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the way the world operates, and no one was prepared for it. One of the essential businesses that were given the OK to keep running was the food industry. Food manufacturing, beverages, dietary supplements and functional foods and restaurants are still showing at their locations, while most people are encouraged to work from home. This article wants to present different aspects of how the food industry in general has been managing the pandemic, using different public resources to obtain reliable information. COVID-19 news and scientific reports are always changing and while we are all trying to understand it, we cannot stop operations: we all have to eat. Something remarkably interesting is that most people do not know viruses are not a living organism. A personal favorite description is “[a virus] is an infective agent that typically consists of a nucleic acid molecule in a protein coat and is able to multiply only within the living cells of a host.” COVID-19 is considered to be a zoonosis (a disease which can be transmitted to humans from animals) but that can easily spread, human-to-human, through close contact, less than six feet, in respiratory droplets. These droplets can be inhaled or land in objects that are later touched by a non-infected person. Latest research found that a virus can live up three hours in the air, up to four (4) hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two (2) or three (3) days on plastic and stainless steel. This specific virus has a lipid (fat) coat, not a protein coat; that makes it extremely easy to inactivate using common soap and common disinfectants currently used in the food industry (chlorine, quaternary ammonia, peracetic acid). A virus can be inactivated at 30º Celsius (86º Fahrenheit). For the food industry in general, this was good news. To read more, download the PDF below. Print Tasa ID18725 Documents to download FINAL TASA Article 030502020(.pdf, 215.21 KB) - 53 download(s)
