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Pandemic’s Effects on Food Manufacturing, for Better or Worse, Could Linger

It’s the A, B, Cs of food manufacturing and packaging. Building-in controls that assure food safety and quality are the very essence of any good food operation.

Eric G

The law requires it, the regulations require it, private standards certifications require it, and just good common sense requires it. That’s why food making and packaging operations incorporate preventive controls, Good Manufacturing Practices, and QA and QC steps, and regularly reevaluate what they’re doing and make adjustments. And it’s all a lot of work.

And yet, the COVID pandemic presented a different kind of challenge, because it implicated worker safety as much as, or more than, food safety. Recall the early headlines about workers in the meat and poultry realm being pounded by the pandemic. But really, every food packager has been confronted with the new and different pandemic-related challenges, including policies for personal protective equipment, distancing, and other practices for their workers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates most foods sold in the U.S., also responded to the new challenges to food making and distribution. Early in 2020, FDA made clear that it doesn’t appear that COVID-19 transmission from packaging surfaces was a high-risk worry, and also said, “Foodborne exposure to this virus is not known to be a route of transmission.” Still, it moved quickly, not waiting for prior public input, and instead immediately issued some new guidance documents. For example, it told food makers it wouldn’t object to some packaged food that was labeled for use in restaurants (and that lacks Nutrition Facts information) being distributed generally, issued temporary new guidance for the packaging and labeling of shell eggs, and backed off on some requirements relating to the Foreign Supplier Verification Program.

In all, FDA issued 11 different guidance documents relating to different aspects of food and beverage manufacturing operations. But those changes in policy will apply only during the pandemic emergency timeframe. (It also issued many more announcements relating to drug and medical device regulation.)


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