From emergency response to standard protocol
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Daniele Sohier, Senior Manager of Global Scientific Affairs at Thermo Fisher Scientific, explains how the food testing sector united around science to develop SARS-CoV-2 solutions.
In 2020, food factories became a frontline in the battle against COVID-19. The combination of potential surface transmission and close quarter working conditions has unfortunately contributed to thousands of infections and dozens of deaths in the United States and Europe alike.
But within months of the virus emerging, the testing community had banded together to design and validate a range of testing methods to enable the sector to continue its vital work.
In a recent webinar, Thermo Fisher Scientific summarised the Emergency Response Validation option of the AOAC Research Institute’s Performance Tested Methods Program and introduced its new SARS-CoV-2 PCR test workflow.
Direct transmission of the novel coronavirus from person-to-person is recognised as the main route of contamination. However, the stability of SARS-CoV-2 on various surfaces has been demonstrated and transmission from contaminated surfaces may be possible.
1,2 While some food industrial segments have faced contamination issues among co-workers,
3 emergency responses were set up to support the hygiene monitoring.
Methods are now available to detect SARS-CoV-2 in a food production environment, in order to evaluate the efficiency of the sanitation processes and the control measures against COVID-19 virus contamination. AOAC INTERNATIONAL has activated an accelerated programme to evaluate test kits for detecting coronavirus on surfaces; this third-party validation is