SARS-CoV-2 in Food Supply Chain
The world is facing a crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, which has resulted in the closure of many businesses. Many employers can telework and work from home, however, food supply chain personnel from farm to retail levels do not have this opportunity to work from home to address food security concerns. Meanwhile, keeping all workers in the food supply chains healthy and safe is challenging for food supply chain stakeholders. Our knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 survival on foods, and food contact surfaces, and in response to different disinfection methods, is very limited. In addition, the fate of virus and how it can be transferred through the food supply chain has not been addressed yet. Thus, these significant limitations highlighted the unmet needs to develop a systematic research approaches, and training materials for industry. The specific aims of this proposed research are: (a) Assess survival of SARS-CoV-2 on different foods, food contact surfaces, and packaging materials under different conditions; (b) Determine the efficacy of different conventionally used and novel sanitizers against SARS-CoV-2 on food and food contact surfaces; (c) Measure the transfer rate from hands to foods and food contact surfaces to best mimic the fate of virus; (d) Develop education materials for food supply chain stakeholders, including farmers, food production workers, food retailers and consumers.
Funding: This research was funded by the
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture 2020-68003- 32876.


Team
Dr. Reza Ovissi, Assistant Professor of Food Safety Engineering
Dr. Andrea Bertke, Associate Professor of Virology
Dr. Renee Boyer, Professor of Food Safety and Consumer Services
Dr. Laura Strawn, Associate Professor of Food Safety Extension
Dr. Michael Schwarz, Director of Seafood AREC, Extension
Dr. Tiffany Drape, Assistant Professor of Agriculture Education
Abigail Villalba, Food Safety Extension
Dr. Janak Dhakal, Postdoc, Research
Dr. Lester Schonberger, Postdoc, Extension
Dr. Cameron Bardsley, Postdoc, Extension
Dr. Mo Jia, Postdoc, Research
Thet Aung, M.Sc. student, Extension
Jonathan Joyce, Ph.D. student, Research

Available Sources
Cleaning, Sanitizing, Disinfecting, and Sterilizing. What's the difference?
Cleaning, Sanitizing, Disinfecting, and Sterilizing. What's the Difference? - Chinese Version
Limpieza, Sanitización, Desinfección y Esterilización. ¿Cuál es la diferencia?
Online Resources Regarding COVID-19 and Food Safety
COVID-19 Preventive Measures - Mass Food Distribution Checklist