The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are providing a checklist for FDA-regulated human and animal food operations to use when assessing operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when re-starting operations after a shut down or when reassessing operations because of changes due to the COVID-19 public health emergency caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2.
Some or all of this checklist may be useful to persons growing, harvesting, packing, manufacturing, processing, or holding human and animal food regulated by FDA. This includes produce, seafood, milk, eggs, grains, game meat, and other raw materials or ingredients, as well as their resulting human or animal food products.
According to FDA, this checklist is not exhaustive of all things human and animal food operations may do for employee health and food safety during the COVID-19 pandemic and can be used in conjunction with additional information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), OSHA, and other federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial authorities. Not all of the items are relevant to all types of food operations; there is additional sector-specific information available e.g., guidance from CDC and the U.S. Department of Labor for Agriculture Workers and Employers, Seafood Processing Workers (developed in consultation with FDA), and Meat and Poultry Processing Workers and Employers.
FDA also says that some human and animal food operations producing food subject to FDA regulations are located in foreign countries, though these operations are not subject to OSHA requirements discussed in this document. This checklist provides information useful for foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for consumption in the United States.
Learn more here: Employee Health and Food Safety Checklist for Human and Animal Food Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
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