Principles and practices of biosafety: Expanding and extending to food safety and food supply chain

Abstract

The perception of biosafety on food and supply chains moves around the philosophical axis of “coping and living with occupational health hazards” to upheld the sustainable development of occupational safety. COVID-19 pandemic opened the “Pandora's box” of prevailing lackadaisical attitude on the basic public health aspects principles that should apply to food safety and food supply chain. We must revamp the collaboration of food production and public health-care delivery system to save the community by containing the spread of highly infectious agent from known and unknown natural and artificial reservoirs. Equity of distribution of quality and quantity of the food and nutrition has to be ensured for the majority of the global population at this crossroads of socio-economic crisis which has pauperized en masse as the negative fallout of pandemic. Food safety should be an urgent agenda for comprehensive internalization and be supplemented with the mitigation plan to minimize psychosomatic stresses and revitalize emotional and psychosocial health by targeted interventions. There is dire need of translational research and holistic streamlining of biosafety program in the phase of the rising trend of the cases and sequels epidemiologic pandemic curve on ground. Needless to mention that apart from SARS-COV2, the holistic concept of the implementation of the biosafety programs can interrupt the transmission of innumerable infectious agents from the plant and animal resources. Biosafety models were reviewed for high laboratory standards in the real time “new normal” situation of containment and risk assessment in this unprecedented pandemic of new millennium.