COVID-19 Impact on Food Pathogen Testing in Food and Beverage Industry

COVID-19 IMPACT ON THE MARKET
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the market significantly on global level. The persistence of COVID-19 for a longer period of time has affected the population of young children, old people and especially people who have weak immunity system. Globally, countries are expecting decline in the food safety of processed food due to de-globalization, loss of income, failed to maintain hygienic conditions and poor manufacturing practices.
Government has been making strict norms regarding the food safety to avoid foodborne illness. Earlier also weak immunity system and diarrhoea was a problem in majority of population and during the COVID-19 outbreak it has taken a major toll. Thus, the population will be more focused in building the higher immunity level and towards the food safety.

COVID-19 OUTBREAK LEAD TO THE REDUCTION IN FOOD MARKET AND FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
The COVID-19 crisis has majorly affected the food market and Food Supply Chain globally. Due to COVID-19 outbreak, the whole process from production to manufacturing to distribution is affected all across the world due to change in the consumers demand, restriction in the trading process, growing concerns regarding food safety of packed food and loss of labour due to movement restriction. The increase awareness among the consumers for the safety of processed and packed food has also affected the food market.
WEEK IMMUNITY SYSTEM AND FOOD BORNE DISEASE IS THE MAJOR COVID-19 RISK ACROSS THE GLOBE
The U.S. states that the high rate of population with weak immunity system is the significant risk factor for COVID-19 hospitalization.
• According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) around 1600 people gets infected from Listeria (a pathogen generally present in food) and out of them 16.25% of infected population die each year.
Globally the increase in the population with foodborne diseases such as diarrhoea in young children and chronic diarrhoea in old people is the significant risk factor for COVID-19 hospitalization.
• According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the report of 2020 stated that among 600 million people 10% of the population gets infected from the food pathogens such as Listeria, Salmonella or E.coli and 420000 die every year.
Among Children’s under 5yrs, the prevalence of food borne disease was 40% and 125000 die every year. Diarrhoea is the most common food borne disease among children and old population and according to World Health Organisation (WHO), 550 million people gets ill of diarrhoea and 230000 deaths occurs every year.
• According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 out of 9 children die due to diarrheal disease which makes it 2,195 child death each day.

IMPORTANCE OF FOOD PATHOGEN TESTING
There are almost 31 known pathogens which are responsible for foodborne diseases and in order to prevent food from those pathogens, food pathogen testing is really important in food industry. The rate of foodborne illness has increased in the past few years due to poor hygienic condition and failed to maintain good manufacturing practices.
Now-a-days rapid technologies for testing pathogens have been adapted rather than traditional culturing. There are variable numbers of kits available in the market for rapid and accurate results such as BAC Gene Kit for Salmonella, Listeria and E.coli, Oxoid, Basingstoke and others.

INCREASED AWARENESS FOR FOOD SAFETY DRIVES THE MARKET
Global awareness about the food safety is on rise after the COVID-19 outbreak due to increase in awareness for food safety among consumers, increased no. of health conscious people and manufacturers are maintaining good hygiene and manufacturing practices to avoid pathogens such as Listeria, Salmonella, E.coli to avoid foodborne illness. Increase in foodborne illness has also drive the government to make strict norms for food pathogen testing.
• According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were total 1134 cases of infected people due to Salmonella in October 2019.
The Increase in dairy industry will also increase the demand for food pathogen testing. New technologies for milk processing, proper training and stringent govt. rules are meant to increase the dairy market.

CONCLUSION
Many researchers and food manufacturers are urging government about the awareness of food safety and importance of the market. Food pathogen testing will ultimately help in reduce the risk of pathogens such as Salmonella, E.coli, Coronavirus and others in the processed food. Thus, the market will be increasing during the COVID-19 outbreak and will grow for the long period due to awareness of food safety of food products among consumers globally.
COVID-19 pandemic has affected the population and economy on the global level. During this pandemic, public awareness regarding the food safety has become the major concern. Majority of the global population became aware for the food safety and are majorly concerned about the processed and packed food which will ultimately lead to rise in the market.