Monkeypox Factsheet for the Food Industry

Food science extension teams at Cornell University have created a monkeypox factsheet with information and resources for the food industry.

The take-home messages include:

• 
  The monkeypox strain causing the current outbreak is much less deadly than COVID-19 (the US had > 10,000 monkey pox cases to date [August 2022] with none of them resulting in deaths) and is much less transmissible than COVID-19.
• 
  While there is a theoretical possibility of transmission through foods and food packaging, basic practices mandatory for all food processing facilities (known as “Good Manufacturing Practices”) will effectively control the small risk of food-associated transmission.
• 
  Food companies should provide basic training on monkeypox (for example, how to identify an infection) and reinforce GMPs.

View or download the Monkeypox Factsheet for the Food Industry from the IFS@CU's website here.