Food Safety Focus (173rd Issue, December 2020) – Food Incident Highlight

Health Advice for Frozen Food Handlers on the Prevention of COVID-19

Recently, some concerns have been raised after the media reported that live coronavirus that causes COVID-19 infections had been detected from the packaging of frozen food. The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) has advised frozen food handlers to adopt certain measures in order to minimise the risk of COVID-19 infections.

Frozen food handlers should practise good personal hygiene. For example, wash hands frequently with liquid soap for 20 seconds as appropriate, including before touching mouth, nose or eyes, before and after handling food, after handling dirty objects or after clean-up. Personal protection equipment like face masks, eye protection, gloves and gowns should be used where appropriate while on duty. The working environment should be adequately ventilated, while cleansing and regular disinfection should be stepped up by using 1:99 dilution of domestic bleach. Food business operators should also ensure adequate social distancing among workers and facilitate them to seek medical attention promptly when getting sick.

Please refer to the CFS website for further details.