Food Safety and Employee Health Implications of COVID-19: A Review

food supply and consumer behavior. Food production and processing are being disrupted due to illnesses, proactive quarantines, and government-mandated movement restrictions, resulting in labor shortages. The food industry has been required to adopt new practices to minimize the risk of COVID-19 cases and outbreaks among its workforce. A comprehensive approach is necessary to address COVID-19 transmission within and outside the facility. Possible interventions include vaccinating employees, ensuring social distancing, wearing face coverings, screening employees for COVID-19, practicing frequent hand washing, cleaning frequently touched surfaces, and ensuring proper ventilation. Compliance with these control strategies must be verified, and a COVID-19 control culture must be established to implement an effective program. The virus biology and epidemiological data clearly support a negligible risk of COVID-19 transmission through food and food packaging. However, COVID-19 pandemic-related supply chain and workforce disruptions may increase actual food safety risks. The goal of this review is to describe the COVID-19 mitigation practices adopted by the food industry and the potential impact of these practices and COVID-19-related disruptions on the industry's food safety mission. The pandemic has affected all parts of the food supply chain, including farms, processors, distributors, retailers, restaurants, and consumers. Stay-at-home orders resulted in a sudden cessation in demand for food from restaurants and other food service operations, forcing some farms to dump large portions of their produce. Food processors experienced large losses of manufactured products, particularly perishable foods. The demand for shelf-stable products increased due to consumers shifting to storing and preparing more food at home. The food industry has faced challenges in procuring sufficient amounts of high-quality and safe raw materials and other supplies, such as packaging and cleaning chemicals. The industry has been responsible for requisitioning face coverings and hand sanitizers to implement COVID-19 control measures. The review aims to ensure that the food industry is prepared to maintain a safe and nutritious food supply in the face of future global disruptions.