In the COVID-19 era, many question what is being done to keep the food supply chain intact and ensure food workers are safe. FDA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have provided a checklist for FDA-regulated human and animal food operations to use when assessing operations during the pandemic, especially when restarting operations after a shutdown or when reassessing operations because of changes due to COVID-19.
In addition, the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) and OSHA signed a two-year alliance to provide NAMI members, the public, and other stakeholders with information, guidance, and access to training resources that will help protect workers.
But labor issues continue to be a challenge. Meatpacker unions in several states sued meat processors because of failure to protect workers from getting sick and not giving them enough compensation for jobs that were deemed essential. In some states, OSHA fined meat processors $15,000 for failure to protect employees, but unions were disconcerted by what they felt were nominal sums. California, which has its own OSHA program, fined one meat company more than $200,000.
