Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Science and its Institute for Food Safety released a fact sheet last week about monkeypox for food industry employers.

According to the fact sheet, there are three key takeaways:

 • The monkeypox strain causing the current outbreak is much less deadly than COVID-19 (the US had > 10,000 monkey pox cases to date 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 re-enforce GMPs.

The entirety of the fact sheet can be read here.