SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic and Food Safety Oversight: Implications in Canada and Coping Strategies

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has created enormous societal disruptions in the Western world, including Canada, with serious implications for food safety. Since the start of the pandemic, many scholars have investigated the issue of food safety through different lenses. In this review, two research thrusts were identified, the epidemiology of the virus and food safety oversight. Both were challenged by the pandemic in Canada and elsewhere. In this paper, we first present how Canada experienced the pandemic. We then present how epidemiology and food safety oversight were affected by the virus and how the spread exposed gaps in Canada’s food safety system. We explain how Canada was not adequately prepared to face the food safety challenges posed by SARS-CoV-2. The review ends with an explanation on how risk perceptions will be altered by the pandemic in Canada and how food safety systems will adjust to better anticipate systemic risks in the future.

Fruit and Vegetable Consumption during the COVID-19 Lockdown in Serbia: An Online Survey

“…On the other hand, although the F&V supply during the pandemic did not affect the majority of consumers, there are evident changes in F&V buying patterns. A lot of consumers moved to online grocery shopping from home [ 38 ]. As consumers mostly stocked non-perishable foodstuffs, they rapidly substituted fresh F&V for frozen and processed [ 12 ].…”

Inequity in access to healthy foods

“…Excluding the ultra-processed foods with few identifiable health benefits, processed foods and ingredients that save time and energy also have numerous benefits that are relevant to reducing inequities. The initial introduction of time-and labour-saving processed foods (and other household technologies) in HICs, and especially in the US, in the 1940s-1980s has been shown to have substantially reduced women's workload and allowed many to enter the formal workforce, growing economies and reducing poverty (186,(190)(191)(192)(193); reducing micronutrient deficiencies through widespread fortification (194)(195)(196); increasing food safety (197)(198)(199); allowing consumers to take advantage of bulk purchasing discounts (lower unit costs) when foods have a longer shelf life (197,198); and improving diet quality among people with limited skills, interest, or facilities for cooking (192,193,200).…”

The effects of Covid-19 pandemic on food safety between Indonesia and Bangladesh: A comparative study

“…The health of workers involved in the food supply chain is important for safe food production to keep active the food supply chain until consumers. Many people are involved in the food supply chain, for example, raw materials suppliers, food processing workers, distributors, wholesalers, retail vendors, and different authorities where the lockdown and rapid spread of Covid-19 have tangled the entire supply chain from primary production to consumption ( Galanakis, 2020 , Charlebois and Music, 2021 ; Han et al, 2021 ; Raptou et al, 2022 ). Availability and access to safe food are most vulnerable during a pandemic due to multiple factors, different bodies, many people, and issues of public health that are directly connected with the entire food supply chain.…”