Rapid review of government issued documents relevant to mitigation of COVID-19 in the US food manufacturing and processing industry

Abstract

We surveyed publicly available records published by the United States (US) government between the start of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and September 30th, 2021, to identify documents containing resources or guidelines about COVID-19 mitigation relevant to the US food manufacturing and processing industry (hereafter referred to as "the food processing industry"). Among 36 documents identified and reviewed (including 35 from government agencies and one from a relevant professional association), we extracted 19 categories of mitigation strategies covering the themes of employee biosafety, surveillance, vaccination, social distancing, and worker education. We concluded that the priority of COVID-19 mitigation in the food processing industry was to protect the health and safety of industry workers while maintaining food supply chain resilience to minimize disturbance in the food market and avoid food crisis. A collated list of the identified documents and their comprehensive review will (i) aid researchers and public health workers in interpreting the potential impacts of the recommended mitigations on the epidemiology of the disease among workers in the food processing industry and (ii) help the food processing industry sort out the most essential strategies to take in face of a pandemic.