COVID-19 Rapid Response: Antiviral Coating for the Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 in Food Manufacturing and Livestock Production

Ensuring a safe environment for food-handlers and consumers is essential for a sustained and safefood supply particularly during pandemics. In recent weeks beef pork and poultry processingplants across the US have emerged as dangerous new hot spots for the COVID-19 pandemic withup to 10% increase in infection rate in meat processing and packaging facilities leading to seriousfood shortages increase in prices and euthanasia of thousands of livestock animals weekly. Theobjective of this project is to develop and demonstrate a proof of concept of a new food-gradeantiviral nanotechnology-enabled coating for non-contact surfaces and plastic materials used infood manufacturing plants and livestock production facilities for the rapid inactivation of SARS- CoV-2. Given the reported stability of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces particularly steel and plastic andthe subsequent environmental transmission the ability to create an antiviral environment bytreating surfaces with a nanocoating capable of rapidly inactivating SARS-CoV-2 becomes a majortool to fight pandemics. This will not only protect the health of workers in food and livestockproduction facilities and help ensure a safe and secure food supply chain but also trigger newsafety and sanitation standards in these facilities. More broadly developing antiviral surfaces andmaterials will help reopen the economy with enhanced safety and protection and will be key inbuilding resilience to future outbreaks.