With an increased emphasis on sanitation due to the global pandemic, many have speculated that these regulations have had an impact on other types of illness. We recently came across an article stipulating that foodborne illnesses are down due to coronavirus countermeasures. While the studies referenced were performed in Australia and Europe, we see a direct correlation between food safety training, COVID-19 measures and foodborne illness prevention.
How Coronavirus Measures have Impacted Foodborne Illness Prevention
The study conducted by the Australian Government is rather extensive, so we’ll briefly break down their findings.
The Australian study showed a rather large reduction of foodborne illness cases, especially when it came to the norovirus. Norovirus outbreaks are among the most common foodborne illness issues worldwide. This study shows norovirus cases were drastically reduced, almost 80-percent less than the previous year when compared to e.Coli and salmonella, which were reduced by approximately 50 percent. European studies have also suggested that norovirus rates lowered significantly over the past year.
We can speculate that reduced restaurant patronage contributed to the reduction of foodborne illness cases, but when you consider that the spread of norovirus is easily controlled through a food safety training emphasis on sanitation and handwashing, we can account for the vastly differing percentage when compared to e.Coli and salmonella, two bacteria that can also be spread through contaminated product.
We hope to be out of the water soon when it comes to dealing with COVID-19, but if we continue to emphasize good handwashing and sanitation, maybe we can keep the momentum going on preventing other illnesses that can be stopped by good food safety training.
