The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have developed a checklist for human and animal food manufacturers to consider when continuing, resuming or reevaluating operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The checklist is useful for persons growing, harvesting, packing, manufacturing, processing or holding human and animal food regulated by FDA. The checklist includes the following considerations:

In addition, the checklist provides examples of ways to align workstations to include social distancing practices.

Food manufacturers can use this checklist in conjunction with other sector-specific information, such as guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and OSHA for agriculture and meat and poultry processing workers and employers.

The checklist is OSHA’s latest effort to protect America’s workers and help employers provide healthy workplaces during the coronavirus pandemic. OSHA has published numerous alerts and advisories for various industries, including Guidance on Returning to Work, which assists employers as they reopen businesses and employees return to work.

Food facilities have been identified as COVID-19 infection hotspots during the pandemic. 

A report published by the the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN) in June found that more than 32,000 food processing, meatpacking, and farm workers have tested positive for COVID-19 since April 22.