Category Archives: COVID-19

New management training program: COVID-19 Management Control Strategies for Food Facilities

Although we reached the phase of the COVID-19 pandemic where vaccines can assist us in controlling the spread, we are still far from calling the pandemic over. There are still US regions where COVID-19 cases are on the rise and the current rate of vaccine administration is less than one fourth of what our maximum capacity was in April 2021. To assure safe continuation of operation, food facilities have to maintain COVID-19 control programs with appropriate adjustments to accommodate a workforce with a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated employees as well as potential for localized community spread, especially in regions with low vaccination rates.

For this reason, we developed eleven short, 20 minute training modules to provide the most recent information and recommendations on controlling COVID-19 in food facilities. This training program is designed to provide food industry managers and supervisors with the tools and resources to help manage the impact on their employees and business operations during these later phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The topics included in the eleven training modules range from how to establish a “COVID-19 Control Culture” in your food facility that with time can be transformed into a robust, long-lasting food safety culture to the latest information about the biology of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and why it is not foodborne. Although the focus is on managing COVID-19 in food facilities, the lessons learned can be applied to other crises where ‘’risk-based’’ perspective is needed to establish a control program with the optimal impact.

Some of the additional topics covered by this training program that are relevant to building any robust control program are (i) the benefits of using a formal system that includes proper documentation to improve control strategies during any crisis and reduce your legal liability, (ii) the benefits of verifying and validating COVID-19 control strategies in food facilities, as well as (iii) how computer modeling can assist you in optimizing the mitigation strategies in your facility.

In the last module of this training program, we provide useful information on how to develop your own training program for your frontline workers and how to communicate with them during pandemics and other crisis situations that are characterized by both limited availability and consistent change of relevant information.

For more information on this training program visit this link from Cornell’s Institute for Food Safety.

Training Delivery: Online; self-paced.

Date Offered: Take any time, on-demand.

Cost: Free.

Intended Audience: Food industry managers and supervisors.

Eligibility: Open to anyone in the Food Industry from Farm to Fork.

COVID-19 Management Control Strategies for Food Facilities

Free Online Training Videos for Managers and Supervisors

The Institute for Food Safety has released several short modules as part of a practical training course for the control of COVID-19 in food facilities. This free course is designed to provide food industry managers and supervisors with the tools and resources to help manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their employees and business operations. Course modules will be posted as they become available. While we recommend participants work their way through the entire series of modules, they can choose to take individual modules as stand-alone lessons. Find these modules here.

Dairy Extension Courses Move Online

Dairy Foods Extension, to continue to meet dairy processors training needs, has moved several courses to online formats during the current NYS ‘Pause.’

The online self-paced Dairy Science and Sanitation Workshop is tailored to dairy processing personnel and is designed to help participants understand the basic principles of dairy science and safety, as well as emphasize dairy processing establishment needs related to dairy sanitation to ensure that proper programs are conducted in their establishments. This course has rolling admission open beginning May 4, 2020. You may begin the course once your registration and payment are confirmed. Participants have 4 weeks to complete the course, either at home or their facility. Registrations are accepted at any time.

A 4-day (4 hours/day) instructor-led online FSMA Preventive Controls for Human Food Qualified Individual course will fulfill the FDA Requirements for FSMA Qualified Individual Training through the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance and AFDO. The course, scheduled for June 16-19, 2020 will include opportunities for participants to review the final rule and participate in classroom exercises to better understand the regulation. At the conclusion of the course, participants will receive a certificate issued by the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) certifying their training as a Preventive Controls Qualified Individual. Registration is open now.

Other courses scheduled for the spring and early summer have been rescheduled to autumn dates. Additional online programming is being added to the training roster. Visit our calendar for updates.

Reach Out To Us

Individually or Through Office Hours

Our team is happy to help answer any questions you may have related to COVID-19. We have subject matter experts that can consult with your leadership team, crisis management team, or answer questions your employees may have. Please do not hesitate to reach out to one of our team members directly, or through our group email address: foodsafety@cornell.edu

Our team is also offering regular office hours. The list of office hours dates and times can be found through this link. Some sessions are commodity-specific and other sessions are open to anyone in the food industry. In each session, subject matter experts cover recent information and answer questions from participants. If you have questions but do not wish to wait for the scheduled time, please refer to the email address above.

We continue to update and add to our Industry Frequently Asked Questions webpage and our COVID-19 Strategy Checklists page.

COVID-19 Developments: Staying Ahead of the Curve

As businesses adjust to new procedures for preventing COVID-19 in the plant, there is a need to look at the big picture of how to mitigate exposure and assess which tools are best to use at essential businesses for preventing COVID-19 outbreaks. Here are our Top 3 considerations.

  1. Screening employees for COVID-19

While a useful tool, taking employees temperatures as a means of screening is not a foolproof way to screen employees. Employees may not have an elevated temperature as a symptom. It is important to screen employees by asking them about other symptoms as well. See our checklist for screening employees and visitors before entering the processing facility.

Employers must communicate well with employees about why they are putting policies in place, and what employees should be doing. Employees should know the symptoms to watch out for, who they should notify if they show symptoms, what they should do if they come into contact with someone who has or may have COVID-19, and that they will still be paid if they must leave work due to COVID-19. This decision tree may be helpful for deciding how to handle COVID-19 positives or potential positives. For more information on using temperatures to screen employees, see this FAQ.

As new information comes out related to different methods of screening employees, it is important that leaders of essential businesses as themselves, “what do the results of this test tell us?” Using tests as a screening method for employees should be carefully considered before implementing.

  1. Back to Basics

Handwashing is one of the most famous Good Manufacturing Practices, and is also one of the most difficult practices to consistently enforce and achieve. The rules of handwashing have always been, “before starting work, after each absence from the work station, and at any other time when the hands may have become soiled or contaminated.” Any time when the hands may have become soiled or contaminated is very frequently, with or without COVID-19. Employees should be washing their hands after touching their face or frequently touched surfaces. This has never been the more important to enforce in facilities. Employers should consider evaluating their facility and looking at where handwashing facilities are. For example, an employee sitting in a control room may be practicing social distancing, but it is not easily achievable for that employee to leave the control room every time the employee touches their face.

Leadership should be verifying proper Good Manufacturing Practices and new social distancing policies are being followed throughout facilities. At a minimum, performing visual observations and following up with any issues is important. Download a spreadsheet for verifying social distancing in the food processing plant.

  1. Risk Doesn’t Care about The Walls of the Facility- Plant Leadership must Provide Guidance

Crisis management teams struggle with how to mitigate risk of employees acquiring COVID-19 outside of the plant. Employees are getting news from different sources in their personal lives. Personal friends, social media, and news stations are all pouring out information that has varying degrees of facts. Food manufacturers must step in to help employees understand relevant factual information. Meeting with employees to provide them with resources and guidance is key to helping employees understand what measures they should be taking in their personal life, and who to go to if employees have concerns.

It is prudent for plant leadership to evaluate anticipated threats to their specific employee base. For example, if they know many employees use public transportation to get to work, it would be wise to assess if there is a better way to get employees to work and expose them to less risk. If essential employees are in living situations that put them at risk, there may be potential to work with community partners (such as hotels) to temporarily relocate them.

These are unprecedented times for food manufacturers. Leaders need to think outside the box and look at the big picture of what efforts will make the biggest difference for employee health. For questions or guidance, please feel free to reach out to our team at foodsafety@cornell.edu.