TECH TODAY: POST-PANDEMIC PLANT CONSTRUCTION AARON HAND | EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Pushing Change to Keep Workers Safe, Plants Running The COVID-19 pandemic prompted food and beverage manufacturers to implement several new safety measures along with cutting-edge technologies geared toward maintaining production in a booming market. As we move forward, which of those changes will take root?
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OR MORE THAN A YEAR, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented change to the food and beverage industry—difficulties in keeping workers safe, disruptions to the supply chain, and in many cases booming demand. But as more people get fully vaccinated and some normalcy returns, what will producers do with the lessons learned? More than likely, food and beverage manufacturers will carry those lessons into new projects. They will take into consideration new ideas about worker density and hygiene, air flow and filtration, automation and robotics, and a whole host of other details. “Masking will eventually go away, but the leftover impact on the facilities will not,” says Jeff Matis, senior project director for CRB, which designs and build plants in the industry.
The next pandemic The consensus from food and beverage companies is that they expect to see another pandemic in the notso-distant future, and they need to be prepared. In fact, 78% of food and beverage executives say they’re actively preparing for a future global pandemic, according to a study from AIB International. Close to one-third
of respondents expect another pandemic within four years, and half expect one within the next decade. Regardless of expectations for a coming pandemic, nobody wants to be caught off-guard. According to AIB’s survey, 61 percent of respondents said their company did not have an adequate plan in place to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic when it began. “Nobody is seeing this as a one-time event,” says Brian Bernard, president of Spec Engineering, a firm focused on system design and process equipment integration. “There will be others.”
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In many food plants, workers are in close proximity, causing concerns for spreading contagions.
| June 2021 | PROFOOD WORLD
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