The coronavirus is fundamentally changing the way the food industry thinks about all kinds of processes and procedures — including, in many cases, food safety outbreaks. The outbreak is “uncharted territory for everyone,” said Candy Lucas, senior director of food safety, South division, for Kieler, Wis.-based PSSI. “It’s hard to say how this will impact any future audits of grocery suppliers as there are so many things to consider,” Lucas said. “Any audit would be government regulated, and at this point there has been no type of address to this pandemic.” PSSI believes it might have the effect of changing the housekeeping and GMPs in grocery stores in how often they’re cleaning and sanitizing all the areas of the store. The company has already seen changes with grocery stores closing early to deep clean at night, offering sanitizing wipes for the carts, and sanitizers at checkouts, Lucas said. “The world is changing, and we will all be adapting to it. We believe the awareness of sanitization will be heightened because of the food traffic in grocery stores.” Westwood, NJ-based Comprehensive Food Safety and its sister company, RK Environmental, launched their COVID-19 Task Force in February, said Stan Cherkasky, Comprehensive Food Safety’s managing director. The overarching focus, he said, was to protect the health and safety of our clients’ employees and customers. “It’s critically important, now more than ever, to help our industry ensure employee health, safety and well-being. Our COVID-19 client solutions have been readily embraced by our clients to complement their mitigation strategies.” These solutions focus on effective mitigation strategies to combat coronavirus, and on the health and safety of retail employees and customers. The solutions, coupled with the company’s clients’ COVID -19 protocols, have been very effective, Cherkasky said.

Comprehensive Food Safety’s COVID-19 solutions include:

Remote/Virtual COVID-19 crisis response assessment and training

Virucidal protection service to combat coronavirus

Health self-assessments (food safety-focused) based on CDC and FDA guidelines

Remote food safety consulting, auditing and virtual training

In light of the coronavirus, Cherkasky said, many retail chains, large and small, have shifted their focus from routine, instore, third-party audits to other approaches. Employee safety and health concerns are critical, and remote auditing is becoming more and more the norm during the coronavirus. “Most third-party retail audit firms have a ‘check-box mentality,” Cherkasky said. “CFS ‘training audits,’ however, focus on sustainable improvement, while building a culture of accountability. It’s not acceptable to have a repeat critical violation on an audit report.” – Food Safety Monitor/Food Business News.