Scientists to minimize COVID-19 cases and transmission among food industry workers

The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened the nation's food supply, in part due to food industry workers falling ill, which reduces the workforce and can lead to temporary facility shut-downs.

A Cornell University-led project will use computer modeling and outreach to find optimal strategies to minimize COVID-19 cases and transmission among workers in food processing facilities, while maintaining the best possible production.

Researchers will collaborate with a dozen meat, dairy and produce industry partners to explore potential solutions in real-world settings.

"This is a problem that requires rapid solutions, we need to solve this right now," said project principal investigator Renata Ivanek, associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences.

Though the hope is that the pandemic will be quelled in the next year, Ivanek said the project will address current issues while also providing valuable insights for any future disease outbreaks.

Food production is an essential industry. Keeping workers safe is a priority and a challenge since they often need to work in close proximity to each other, increasing the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Many companies have tried to address the risk by shutting down a portion of their production lines and adding plexiglass dividers but this reduces production capacity. Adding to the complexity is that facilities are all unique.

Part of the project is to investigate how segments of the food production industry differ and how to develop control strategies that will fit a specific industry segment," Ivanek said.

Renata Ivanek, Project Principal Investigator and Associate Professor, Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine

Once a model has been developed and validated, it will be scaled up and applied in several specific facilities to further validate it in real world settings. Industry partners include produce processors Misionero Vegetables, Del Monte Foods, Seneca Foods Corporation and Taylor Farms; dairy processor Great Lakes Cheese; and poultry, beef and pork processor Tyson Foods.

In parallel, co-principal investigators, Samuel Alcaine, assistant professor of food science, and Martin Wiedmann, professor of food safety, will develop and deliver online extension programs for industries.

Outreach will include courses on COVID-19, its biology and how to control it. The Institute for Food Safety at Cornell University has already begun some of this work, including information-sharing office hours that food processing facility managers may virtually join to engage with COVID-19 experts on such topics as safety training for employees and using checklists to assess a facility's safety plan.