FoodPacific Manufacturing Journal - September 2020

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A changed worldWith nearly three months to go before the end of the year, it seems the light at the end of the tunnel – the coronavirus-free environment we long for – is far from sight in 2020. Instead fear, confusion, and anxiety, not to mention mistrust, still consume the most affected by the pandemic.Many businesses are now folding, and economies are crumbling, and for how long. It’s a changed world too inside companies and factories where workforce is skeletal, and compliance with uncomfortable safety and hygiene procedures is a sad reminder of the current state. Some companies don’t even understand how they should carry out new practices. If you go to the US FDA website, you’ll see the many questions manufacturers have about food safety and COVID-19. On June 7, the UN celebrated Food Safety Day where they stressed the importance of each and everyone’s contribution to ensuring global food safety especially during these times. In the food industry, it’s not just about food contamination, but contracting COVID-19 in the workplace. And even as the World Health Organisation says we can’t catch the virus from food and packaging, we feel more secure when disinfecting whatever comes from the outside world. In our Packaging Trends report, Dr Manfred Tacker, who is the head of the Packaging and Resource Management Section at FH Campus Wien, says, “The agility to change or reverse course is key” where he pertains to how companies are adjusting to the present times. It may well be applicable not just to packaging companies today, but to most manufacturers who have already been adjusting their production and plans since the start of the year. It even applies to our individual lives.