What are you doing at your factories in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak?
Our top priority is the health and safety of people. All our staff have been advised on measures they can take to protect themselves and others from coronavirus, including self-isolation, social distancing and personal hygiene. This is in addition to the strict measures already adopted in all our factories, such as thorough training in food hygiene, extensive hand washing procedures, the use of Personal Protective Equipment, and routine deep cleaning of all our food preparation areas.
In addition, we have limited the number of visitors to our site to those absolutely necessary. All visitors are risk-assessed and isolated in designated rooms if appropriate. Where visitors have to access the site we advise that a distance of two metres between people is preserved to minimise any risk.
What about your Head Office?
Most of our people are working from home where possible with only some of our operations team coming to the office. To help us prepare for the safe return of more people to the office, we have out produced a set of guidelines which can be accessed from: https://fresh.blueskies.com/workingsafely.pdf
What happens if someone has symptoms of coronavirus at one of your facilities?
All our people have been trained to recognise the symptoms of COVID 19 and requested not to come to work if they suspect that they are infected. We have taken steps to ensure that people will not suffer financial hardship if they do not come to work. Anyone displaying symptoms in the workplace will immediately be sent home and asked to self-isolate. They will be asked to seek medical advice in accordance with local government guidance. Staff who may have come in to contact with anyone displaying symptoms will be informed and asked to self-isolate in accordance with local government guidance.
What is the risk of the virus being transmitted in your products?
There is no evidence that food is a source or route of transmission of the virus.
How are you ensuring you can deliver your products to market?
We are doing everything possible to ensure we can continue producing our products and supplying our customers around the world. We rely on passenger aircraft to get many of our products to market and as many airlines are grounding flights, we are using dedicated cargo planes where necessary to distribute products to our key markets.
