The coronavirus pandemic is more of a food safety and industry issue than a food safety problem, experts say.
The “World Summit on COVID-19 and Food Security” organized through the International Food Protection Association (IAFP). David Tharp, IAFP EXECUTIVE Director, and Bill Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark LLP PS, welcomed participants from around the world to the webinar.
The first consultation included global presentations followed through express regional presentations from Europe, the United States and China.
Markus Lipp, head of the food protection unit and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said there were no food transmission sightings of COVID-19.
“COVID-19 is not considered a food safety issue. What we have noticed are industry disruptions due to import and export freezes across countries. There are a number of other occasions that threaten food security and our home chains.”
“The end of existing social coverage plans and higher social assistance programmes will put great pressure on the budgets of countries around the world. Rising unemployment, lost source of income, and emerging food costs will jeopardize the emergence and evolution of countries,” he said.
“The existing scenario is unlike any other food or fitness crisis of fashion times, as the source and demand of the economy have suffered global shocks. These are difficult times. Our food security is at risk for others in developed and emerging countries. , however, its effect on coming countries is greater. We’ll have to combine paints to make sure food safety will remain for everyone.”
In June, the World Bank estimated that COVID-19 could bring 71 million to one hundred million people into excessive poverty by 2020. The United Nations has predicted that another 49 million people could fall into excessive poverty as a result of the crisis. The World Trade Organization (WTO) estimated in April that the global product industry by 2020 could fall to 32%.
“A risk-based technique allocates resources at high risk and has a maximum effect on activities. This is vital with COVID-19 because you want to balance new hazards with existing ones. This includes reorganizing processes or taking special measures if the disease spreads because other people cannot paint generally.”
Gallhoff stated that the greatest threat to COVID-19’s food security is forgetting planned activities.
“Even if you still have to prioritize food protection controls, you want to perceive that you can’t inspect in the same way. Many of us do audio inspections and want to adapt their procedures accordingly. There may be new hazards related to procedural adjustments and item replacement. »
Gallhoff said it could jeopardize food security because some foods and ingredients are no longer there.
“Supply chains are blocked. In Europe, we had this challenge, especially at the beginning of COVID-19. Simply add other certification needs or prevent products at the border from being the answer. That’s why we want to paint flexibly, keeping as much as possible. imaginable the well-established processes we had before, but introducing new tactics to put together the challenge by responding to the wisdom we get about the disease and the changed resources.
Communication is a challenge, according to Gallhoff.
“We want to introduce transparency about why secure strategies are followed and why they are used to convince others that things want to be done this way in existing circumstances. It is also vital to document new learning tactics, so that a measure has been a success or has failed and must replace it again. We are learning new data every day about how the virus is transmitted, we hope to know where it comes from and we will be to save your long-term pandemics with this information »
LeeAnne Jackson, head of food at CFSAN – FDA Incident Management Group on the new 2019 coronavirus, said the pandemic is an unprecedented challenge for the agency.
“Unprecedented customer orders and adjustments to distribution patterns have led to the scarcity of some products by transitority. The closure of the transitority of restaurants, schools and entertainment outlets left many food manufacturers without their general trace to the market, which resulted in a surplus of food that had to be diverted to grocery retailers and retailers,” he said.
“In our reaction to the pandemic, one of the classes we have learned is that a crisis of unprecedented magnitude requires federal, state and local governments, the food industry, and universities to present paintings together. We are encouraged by that to get the most out of food and farms. under fda jurisdiction continue to operate and we anticipate that the authority of the Defense Production Act should be invoked.”
In March, the FDA postponed follow-up inspections at the regimen site.
“We continue to conduct mission-critical inspections when there was a potential risk of public fitness. We are also running towards the most productive and appropriate way to resume safe home inspections and other FDA personnel-related activities,” Jackson said.
“There are two transmission resources imaginable. One is another person for another person and the other is food for another person. All we know is that it does not come from the local population founded on the DNA sequencing of the virus. The other source imaginable is the transmission of food to people, as there were several positive samples in this market, adding tables to cut salmon, raw food samples, adding meat and environmental samples. Investigations are still ongoing, there is no direct evidence from any source imaginable”.
They have an effect on the closure of the Xinfadi market and the destruction of all seafood and meat. The sale of salmon and other seafood through Beijing’s supermarkets and restaurants has been suspended while sampling and testing of imported meat and seafood products began. Confused media reports have led consumers to worry about buying, cooking and eating seafood. Positive samples of nucleic acid from a packet of white shrimp from Ecuador increased the weight of speculation, Chen said.
He said effective communications were needed at the beginning of any crisis and that regulatory controls were based on science.
“More studies are needed to determine if there is a SARS-CoV-2 virus that lives in food samples with positive nucleic acid and the amount of viruses that live in infected foods to identify dating between infected foods and the disease.”
The timing of the occasion’s consultation brought together Donald Schaffner, Ben Chapman and Lawrence Goodridge, while John Donaghy, Michelle Danyluk, Ruth Petran, Sharon Brunelle and Kalmia E. Kniel took part in the third panel.
The summit sponsored in components through Seattle Marler Clark LLP. Bill Marler, a founding component, is the editor of Food Safety News.