INTRODUCTIONAn outbreak of coronavirus infection in Wuhan,China, has led to a global epidemic declared a PublicHealth Emergency of International Concern by theWorld Health Organization [1]. The emergence of a newhuman coronavirus has become a global public healthproblem. The virus has demonstrated a variety of forms,health effects, and incubation periods. COVID-19 isresistant to environmental factors, has a high penetrationability, and may be lethal. The challenge lies in thenew form of the virus and the lack of experience incombating it, as well as in the absence of an effectivemedicine. An infected patient has practically no chanceof recovery without medical intervention. Childrenunder 14 and 65-plusers are at risk [2]. Since the currenttrajectory of the COVID-19 outbreak is unknown,authorities have to develop public health preventivemeasures to curb the spread and gain experience thatcould be transformed into treatment recommendations.The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the wholeworld and all spheres of human life. Italy, Spain, France,Great Britain, USA, and China have suffered the mostdamage. The situation in Russia remains noncritical,which can be explained by its territorial features, longtermexperience in anti-infection preventive measures,and their timely implementation. Risk awarenessmotivates people to adopt preventative behavior.The growing incidence and fatal outcomes abroaddemonstrated Russians the need to follow officialrecommendations, both at home and at work.COVID-19 is a global problem, and all globaleconomies are going through hard times. However,there are vital industries that require priority measures,food supply being one of them. The US food andagricultural sector is 100% privately owned. It includes2.1 million farms, 935 000 restaurants, and more than200 000 enterprises of food production, processing, andCopyright © 2020, Mayurnikova et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalLicense (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix,transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.Foods and Raw Materials, 2020, vol. 8, no. 2E-ISSN 2310-9599ISSN 2308-4057198Mayurnikova L.A. et al. Foods and Raw Materials, 2020, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 197–203storage. This sector accounts for about 20% of economicactivity. The American Food Industry Association(FMI) promptly issued a Coronavirus PreparednessChecklist. According to the FMI, a pandemic willrequire the mutual efforts of many related spheres,including health, supply chain, logistics, food safety,labor, emergency management, and the media.The food sector is one of the strategic sectors ofRussian economy. It owes its strategic implication to thefact that every citizen is a consumer of food products.The national security demands that citizens should haveaccess to essential food products of domestic origin,regardless of imports. The food sector is representedby agriculture, food industry, food processing industry,and public food service. It is a backbone sphere ofRussian economy. The food sector forms the agri-foodmarket and ensures food security. Agriculture employs4.346 million people, food and processing industryaccounts for 2 million jobs, and 1 million people areengaged in public catering. Together, this is more than10% of the total number of people employed in theeconomy. Russian food industry is represented by morethan 50 000 enterprises, while public catering includes187 000 enterprises [3]. Therefore, the national foodsector is important, especially in emergency situations.The Federal Service for Supervision of ConsumerRights Protection and Human Security responded tothe epidemic as early as in February 2020. It developedRecommendations for the Prevention and DisinfectionMeasures against the Spread of New CoronavirusInfection in Catering Enterprises and Food Storage ofEducational Organizations [4].The coronavirus outbreak exposed serious problemsin all sectors of human life, including food security. Theresearch objective was an analysis and synthesis of theavailable information in order to bring it to the scientificcommunity and the population engaged in the foodsector, thus facilitating the adaptation of food serviceenterprises to the extreme conditions and preparingthem for a possible worst-case scenario.The practical application of the article is that it caninspire further studies of this urgent problem and setgoals for the future scientific research. This seems tobe the case when the development does not go “fromscience to practice” but “from practice to science”.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONCanteens and refectories expose staff and clients topathogenic microorganisms, e.g. viruses or bacteria.Workers in the production and service areas shouldknow the so-called sanitary control points and be ableto control them so as not to endanger the health ofcolleagues and clients.The work of food service enterprises (FSE) duringthe COVID-19 pandemic is fraught with extremeconditions. At a FSE, the pathogen can spread via thefollowing routes:– by inhalation of microorganisms that can staysuspended in the air for a long time;– by direct contact with oral fluids or other bodilymaterials that enter the FSE premises with clients;– when the mucous membrane of the nose, mouth, andeyes is exposed to droplets and aerosols that containmicroorganisms formed in the infected person andspread over short distances with coughing, sneezing, ortalking without a face mask; and– by indirect contact with contaminated tools and/orsurfaces [5–10].During the outbreak of COVID-19, the infectioncan spread by any of these routes, each of which isassociated with an infected person visiting public places,including FSEs.Hotels, catering and tourism incur huge losses.During the quarantine period, most enterprises wereclosed as high COVID-19 incidence is associated withcrowded places. Therefore, it is extremely important toprevent a further spread of the virus in public places [11,12]. Social distancing is one of the recommendedpreventive measures. Social distancing is most effectivein all scenarios, e.g. airborne contamination when themicroorganism stays viable in the air for a long time, orin cases of aerial transmission by coughing or sneezing,as well as in cases of direct or indirect physical contact,e.g. via contaminated surfaces, etc.Adequate measures to combat the pandemic incrowded places are possible only with respect to a fullunderstanding of the transmission mechanism andviability of the virus. Given the current global situation,the mechanism of transmission of the COVID-19 virusat FSEs requires an urgent and thorough research. Suchresearch could help analyze and adapt measures aimed atCOVID-19 risk reduction.Food service employees run into danger of theCOVID-19 infection. They communicate with clientsface to face and have to deal with cutlery and tablesurfaces. Moreover, they are exposed to potentiallydangerous biological material, e.g. saliva droplets onnapkins and tableware. Therefore, FSE employeesmust know and follow the necessary safety rules,which may play a great role in preventing the spreadof COVID-19 [5].There is currently no evidence that COVID-19 can betransmitted via food or food packaging. Nevertheless, aperson can get COVID-19 by touching a contaminatedsurface or object and then touching their mouth, nose,or eyes. However, this is not the main way the virusspreads. The US Centers for Disease Control andPrevention claim that COVID-19 does not live long onsurface areas. Therefore, the risk of virus transmissionvia food or packaging is very low. It takes a few daysor weeks to deliver food products and goods to FSEs.The person-to-person route is more likely, e.g. via closecontact with a patient or carrier.We performed a brief analysis of scientific literaturethat revealed the following COVID-19 transmissionroutes:199Mayurnikova L.A. et al. Foods and Raw Materials, 2020, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 197–203– a person-to-person direct transmission throughcoughing, sneezing, inhalation of droplets, contactwith oral, nasal, or ophthalmic mucous membranes, orindirect transmission via saliva [5, 11, 13, 14];– from surfaces to humans;– from animals to humans; and– asymptomatic transmission [15].There is currently no evidence that COVID-19 canbe transmitted through food products. Yet, this fact doesnot mean that there is no risk. To assess the chance ofcoronavirus infection in FSE conditions, let us describethe mechanisms by which the pathogen enters a FSE,how it is transported and transmitted to humans.Aerial transmission. This mechanism ofCOVID-19 transmission has been described inseveral studies [5, 7–8, 11, 15–18]. The pathogencan stay airborne and viable for a long time. It canspread via direct contact with oral fluids or otherbodily substances. The conjunctiva of nasal or oralmucosa may contact with droplets and aerosols thatcontain microorganisms generated by an infectedperson and set in motion by coughing or talkingat a close distance with no face mask on. Finally,the virus can spread through indirect contact withcontaminated tools, dishes, or surfaces [7–10].If an infected person is present on the FSE premises, theinfection can follow any of these paths (Fig. 1).Food production and catering practices showthat many production processes result in droplets orsuspensions that hang in the air, e.g. washing the dishes,equipment, and tools, or processing raw materials, etc.These droplets move freely in the air stream. As a result,there is a chance that they can capture the virus andcarry it on [17].Community transmission. The waitperson comesinto direct or indirect contact with the bodily liquids(biological media) of the clients through table surfaces,dishes, cutlery, napkins, toothpicks, etc. Such exposureis likely to facilitate the COVID-19 spread [9].Transmission via contaminated surfaces. Thecoronavirus remains viable on such surfaces as glass,plastic, wood, or metal [7, 18]. Therefore, all surfacesthat food workers have to deal with are potentialsources of COVID-19 transmission. There is a practiceof detecting droplets and aerosols from infected peoplewho can contaminate surfaces while visiting publicplaces. At FSEs, the list of potentially contaminatedsurfaces includes tables, chairs, furniture, door handles,etc. The packaging surfaces of products and goodssupplies are another potential source of the coronavirusinfection. At the stage of the incoming goods inspection,the employees touch the surfaces that may contain tracesof the viral infection. Thus, the virus can enter a FSE viasupply transportation or simply via contact with externalenvironment and infected people who contaminate thesurfaces around them. Some types of coronavirus areknown to remain viable at room temperature from twohours to nine days. Several studies showed that thevirus has a better chance of survival at 50% of relativehumidity than at 30%. According to Russian regulatorydocuments, the recommended relative air humidity atFSEs should be 60–40% in the cold season and 40–60%in the warm season. Therefore, maintaining a clean anddry environment at FSEs can help reduce the COVID-19viability [2, 19, 20].Popova, the Chief Sanitary Doctor of the RussianFederation, issued a monitoring system and a numberof decrees that control the spread of the coronavirusinfection in Russia. The decrees contain preventivemeasures against the COVID-19 infection. As thethreat of importation and spread did not cease, FederalLaw No. 53 On the Sanitary and EpidemiologicalSafety of the Population was issued on March 2, 2020.It introduced some further preventive measures.Additional recommendations on the COVID-19prevention were developed for employees and headsof organizations, regardless of the legal forms ofownership.FSEs had to limit public events during the pandemic.As for refectories and canteens, they received thefollowing recommendations, depending on the specificconditions at the enterprise they serve:– if the enterprise has a canteen, it is to be providedwith disposable tableware. After using, the utensils arecollected, disinfected, and destroyed in the prescribedmanner. Reusable utensils are to be processed inspecialized dishwashers at ≥ 65°C for 90 min, ormanually at ≥ 65°C with disinfectants, as stated in therelated sanitary standards;– cooking process should involve high-level heattreatment technologies;– sale or consumption of raw or insufficiently thermallyprocessed products of animal origin is forbidden;– butchers should observe personal hygiene rules, whichinclude frequent hand washing after contact with rawmaterials and products of animal origin;– expired raw materials can cause food poisoning;therefore, feedstock volume should be planned takinginto account the decreasing amount of producedproducts;– canteen and refectories should give preference to foodswith a high nutritional value;Figure 1 Transmission routes of 2019-nCoV at food serviceenterprisesCOVID-2019200Mayurnikova L.A. et al. Foods and Raw Materials, 2020, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 197–203– the incoming goods inspection is to ensure a strictquality control of the incoming raw materials and theaccompanying documents;– if the enterprise has no canteen, employees are notallowed to eat at workplaces: they can have their mealsonly in a specially designated meal room; and– should there be no meal room, employees are to beprovided with a specially allocated meal area with a sinkfor hand washing and disinfectants.The above recommendations also determine thelist of food service enterprises that can be potentiallydangerous:– crowded places, e.g. food courts and canteens, with ahigh circulation of people, which increases the risk ofencountering coronavirus patients and virus carriers;– FSEs that sell finished products in reusable utensilsare to ensure their proper sanitization with therecommended concentrations of disinfectants;– self-service enterprises, e.g. self-service buffets, saladbars, etc.FSEs that deliver finished culinary products havecertain advantages in the current situation. Disposabletableware and shipping containers, e.g. thermal bags,reduce the risk of contamination. However, in thiscase, the risk zone shifts towards the person-to-persontransmission route: the infection can be transmittedvia airborne droplets from the delivery person to theconsumer or vice versa. The surfaces the delivery personcontacted with have to undergo additional disinfection,while both the employee and the client are to wear facemasks and disposable gloves.FSEs unlicensed to deliver finished products cannotoperate in full during the quarantine. However, they cansell takeaway meals in disposable packaging, on conditionthey follow all recommended preventive measuresconcerning the seller – client communication [7].Recommendations for restaurants offering takeawayservices include the following points:– FSEs can only accept online or phone orders, withoutface-to-face communication on the FSE premises, ofwhich consumers should be informed via traditionaladvertising means;– the delivery time should be individual for each client,i.e. they must not enter the premises until their order isready;– spontaneous clients are be advised to leave thepremises to place their order by telephone or online andreturn at the appointed time to receive it;– customers whose orders are ready must enter the siteone at a time to collect their orders and make payments;and– employees are to prevent crowding outside by usingqueuing systems to maintain the recommended twometerdistance.In many Russian cities, including Moscow, publicand leisure events consisting of 50 people or more werebanned as early as in mid-March. Cafes, restaurants,and other FSEs fell under these restrictions, since thenumber of personnel and clients combined is likelyto exceed 50 people. An exception was made onlyfor cafes, restaurants, and FSEs that provide deliveryservice. In the Kuzbass, the flow of clients to cafes andrestaurants decreased by an average of 50% in less thana week. During the quarantine, most consumers preferto eat at home or take home-cooked food to work. OnMarch 17, 2020, all FSEs received Recommendationsfor the Prevention of the New Coronavirus COVID-19Infection and the Protection of Citizens in Trade andPublic Catering Organizations from the Ministry ofIndustry and Trade of the Russian Federation. Therecommendations set forth immediate preventivemeasures to protect citizens in public catering and tradeorganizations.However, not all FSEs can switch to the takeawaymode. This type of activity has its own specific featuresassociated with the quality and safety of remotely soldproducts. Food delivery imposes extra obligations onthe businesses, i.e. appropriate permits from regulatoryauthorities for the delivery of finished catering products.In Russia, regulatory documents that controlfood safety issues include Sanitary Regulations andStandards, Technical Regulations of Customs Union,etc. For instance, the On Food Safety TechnicalRegulation of Customs Union 021/2011 indicates themandatory presence of a safety management system inthe food industryI. According to Article 10 (Clause 2),food production processes must be based on theprinciples of Hazard Analysis and Critical ControlPoints. Otherwise, FSEs cannot fully ensure theproduction and sale safety, especially during thecoronavirus pandemic. The basic systems for ensuringthe quality and safety of food products in industrialpractice include Good Manufacture Practice (GMP)and Good Hygiene Practice (GHP). Maintainingthese systems can minimize the possibility of surfacecontamination and eliminate it, should it occur. Thisfactor is important for the safe operation of FSEs, bothin the current situation and in the future.Infection control at FSEs. Catering personnel andmanagers should be aware of coronavirus transmissionroutes, symptoms, and preventive measures.Identification of potentially infected clients. Allcatering staff should be prepared to identify and reporta client suspected to be infected. Ideally, COVID-19patients are not allowed to visit public places. However,FSE employees ought to maintain COVID-19 alert andrefuse to provide service to any client with symptoms.They must immediately inform the manager of possibleinfection, as well as appropriate authorities as instructed.Protocol for assessment of FSE staff. Theepidemiological safety of a FSE is the responsibilityI TR TS 021/2011. Tekhnicheskiy reglament Tamozhennogo soyuza“O bezopasnosti pishchevoy produktsii” [TR CU 021/2011. Technicalregulations of the Customs Union “On food safety”]. 2011.201Mayurnikova L.A. et al. Foods and Raw Materials, 2020, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 197–203of its managers. They are to monitor the possibleincidence among the employees every day. Managersmust keep their staff updated on the situation and makesure that they take the situation seriously. Managers areto collect data that can be used as the primary methodfor identifying potential COVID-19 carriers. In otherwords, they are to measure the body temperature of theiremployees with a non-contact forehead thermometer.A simple survey is another useful precaution. The listof questions may include the following: Have you beenabroad in the past 14 days? If yes, what country did youvisit? Have you had a fever in the past 14 days? Haveyou participated in gatherings, meetings, or had contactwith large groups of strangers? Have you had contactwith a patient with confirmed coronavirus infection? Doyou have breathing problems? etc. If the employee givesa positive answer to any of the questions, he/her mustbe self-isolated and quarantined, and the managementmust inform the appropriate authorities as instructed[5, 22]. If an employee proved COVID-19-positive,employers should inform the staff about the possibilityof COVID-19 infection without revealing the identity ofthe infected employee. The latter is to be denied accessto the premises until officially reported safe to return towork by health authorities.Hand hygiene. F oreign s ources r eported c ases o ffecal-oral route of COVID-19 transmission, which makesthe issue of hand hygiene even more important for FSEstaff. Despite the fact that hand hygiene is mandatoryin food production as part of sanitary and hygienicrequirements, the level of compliance still leaves muchto be desired. During the coronavirus pandemic, handhygiene should be the golden safety rule and an essentialelement of personal hygiene. Hand washing is obligatorybefore commencing work; whenever your hands becomedirty; after every trip to the toilet; after touching rawmaterials or packaging; between process operations,e.g. when proceeding from raw materials to finishedproducts; after touching your hair, nose, ears, andeyes; after smoking or eating; after handling garbage,chemicals, or cleaning tools, etc. Proper hand washing isof particular importance for waitpersons, administrators,and cashiers, i.e. those who touch banknotes or varioussurfaces in the retail space. Any unprotected contact withenvironment and equipment without proper disinfectionafterwards can be dangerous if one subsequently touchesone’s oral, nasal, or ophthalmic mucous membraneor damaged skin. Visitor service area staff should beespecially careful [24].Personal protective equipment for employees.There are currently no specific COVID-19 infectionprotection measures for catering staff. Taking intoaccount the transmission route by airborne droplets,all employees are to wear goggles, face masks, gloves,protective clothing, and mop caps. Disposable protectiveequipment should be changed every 2–3 h [22, 23].Disinfection. FSEs must take strict and effectivedisinfection measures according to the current sanitarystandards. Public, industrial, storage, and utility areasshould be washed and disinfected on a regular basis,including door handles, chairs, and tables. The sameprocedure holds for elevators. Employees that have todeal with cash and plastic cards, e.g. managers, cashiers,accountants, couriers, etc., should avoid touching anyobjects of shared use, e.g. terminals, cash desks, etc.,after direct contact with the specified items [25, 26].The list of scientifically approved anti-coronavirussurface disinfectants includes a 62–71% ethanol solutionand a 0.1% sodium hypochlorite solution [23, 24, 27,28]. Disinfectants that contain even small doses of thesesubstances in the required concentration proved mosteffective. The Research Institute of Disinfectology ofthe Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer RightsProtection and Human Welfare published a longer list ofregistered disinfectants.Every FSE should have a sufficient supply ofdisinfectants. Disinfection procedures require protectionof skin, eyes, and breathing organs. The personnelresponsible for disinfection should wear protectiveequipment, i.e. face masks or respirators, goggles, andgloves, according to the specific application instructions.All in all, FSE personnel should constantly monitorthe existing risk assessments and safe working systems.Managers are to update the personnel responsible forhuman safety on any relevant official information.Managers should follow updates on the epidemic inother countries to be aware of possible new transmissionroutes. For instance, FSEs purchase raw materials ofanimal and fish origin to produce catering products. TheWorld Health Organization published recommendationsthat are aimed at transmission risk reduction fromanimals to humans at the market. Visitors of live animalmarkets, seafood markets, or animal products marketsshould practice general hygiene measures. They includeregular hand washing with soap and water after touchinganimals and animal products, avoiding touching eyes,nose, or mouth, and avoiding contact with sick animalsor spoiled animal products. Buyers should also avoidcontact with potentially contaminated livestock wastesor spilt liquids in stores and market facilities. Rawor undercooked animal products can be dangerousfor consumption. According to food safety practices,raw meat, milk, and animal organs should be handledcarefully to avoid cross-contamination.CONCLUSIONThe outbreak of COVID-19 has become a clinicalthreat to people around the world. The World HealthOrganization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.The situation crippled healthcare, production of firstpriority goods, and service industry. Their employeescannot avoid face-to-face contact with clients whilehaving to perform their professional duties evenduring epidemics. In spite of the fact that all countriesare doing their best to solve the problem, our currentknowledge about the new virus remains limited.202Mayurnikova L.A. et al. Foods and Raw Materials, 2020, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 197–203Scenarios for antiviral therapy and vaccination are stillbeing developed. As a result, preventive and infectioncontrol measures remain the most effective instrumentto combat the current spread of COVID-19. Scientistsand pandemic experts are studying epidemics of the pastto find options for urgent prevention and treatment ofsevere acute respiratory infections caused by COVID-19.The rapidly growing number of person-to-persontransmission cases delivered a hard blow to thecatering industry. In conditions when self-isolationhas become the main preventive measure, most foodservice enterprises switched to delivery or takeawaysales. However, a complete isolation of food serviceenterprises does not seem possible. A significant partof the population needs food service while at homeor at work. By learning the mechanism of COVID-19transmission, managers of food service enterprises candevelop measures to reduce the risks. A further analysisand synthesis of methods should take into account thenational, cultural, economic, and climatic features ofspecific countries. Many catering establishments willdraw a lesson from their pandemic experience. On theone hand, they will understand that failure to complywith the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Pointssystem ruins production safety and increases the riskof infection. On the other hand, the negative experiencecan become a new growth point for the food serviceenterprises when they emerge from the crisis.CONTRIBUTIONThe authors were equally involved in writing themanuscript and are equally responsible.CONFLICT OF INTERESTThe authors declare that there is no conflict ofinterests related to the publication of this article.