Food Safety Industry Consulting

According to a recent Convenience Store News webinar, ensuring the wellbeing and well-being of all clients and staff should be a top concern for retailers, and a proper strategy can make the difference in profitability or failure.

C-store owners must ensure that their employees follow appropriate guidelines for public health, and shoppers must be assured that their c-store selection will not result in their sickness.

 Food Safety Experts

During the pandemic, fundamental safeguards require an awareness that while COVID-19 mainly spreads from person to person, it is possible to transfer viral particles to hard surfaces. As such, advised webinar presenter Nancy Caldarola, PhD, RDN, and hospitality and food protection specialist at Design Associates Inc., c-stores should concentrate on equipping staff with proper personal protective equipment ( PPE), discontinuing self-service stations, and implementing social distancing.

Specifics matter. It is necessary to suit correctly with masks , gloves and face shields with visors, and a face shield without a mask is not enough. These objects themselves often need to be treated cautiously as they bear some chance of touch transmission if consumers aren't careful.

Enforcing social distance inside the shop will help keep stuff under check, but Caldarola admitted that when it comes to consumers, this can be challenging.

It's complicated when many individuals queue up to pay, "she added, suggesting signs to include practical instruction and a reminder of the value of spreading out."

It has also helped to improve compliance with safety initiatives to provide a stock of protective masks on hand to provide to customers when they reach the shop, she said.

In the workers side, Caldarola emphasised that if they show symptoms of sickness, staff need to remain home. By proper preparation and providing sick leave, operators will promote this.

"Anywhere and to everyone, COVID-19 will happen," stressed fellow webinar presenter Chirag H. Bhatt, president of CHB Food Safety Consultancy. That said, if an employee tests positive for the infection, it does not necessarily mean that it is appropriate to close down the store entirely.

If a sick employee has been in the plant for fewer than seven days, Bhatt said distributors should shut down all places where the employee has spent extended periods of time, and then wait 24 hours before washing and disinfecting. In the event of residual virus spores, opening doors , windows and other openings will also aid airflow circulation.

If more than seven days have elapsed after a sick worker was in the workplace, no closure or extra cleaning is required, but he said that all high-touch surfaces should be routinely washed and disinfected by retailers.

Symptomatic sick staff may discontinue isolation if: they have been at least 10 days since the onset; they have been free of fever for at least 24 hours without the use of medicine to lower the fever; and other symptoms have improved. Isolation and other measures can be discontinued by asymptomatic workers who test positive for COVID-19 10 days after the date of their first food safety audit for food businesses positive PCR.

In order to conduct touch tracking, it is also necessary to establish the workers have been in direct contact with a sick coworker, he pointed out.