Keep Norovirus Off the Menu This Thanksgiving

Did you know that infected foodservice workers cause about 70 percent of reported norovirus outbreaks? While the illness is often linked with cruise ships in the news, the truth is that those incidents account for only about 1 percent of all reported outbreaks, which can happen anywhere people gather or food is served.

Norovirus is highly contagious and hard to kill. People who are sick with norovirus commonly vomit and have diarrhea, both of which can shed billions of tiny viral particles. It can take as few as 18 viral particles to make another person sick, so a person needs only to come into contact with a minute amount of vomit or diarrhea to develop norovirus.

Norovirus is an especially big problem for foodservice because one in five foodservice workers has reported working while sick with vomiting and diarrhea out of fear of losing a job or leaving coworkers short-staffed. Further complicating the issue are observations that show foodservice workers practice proper hand hygiene only one out of four times that they should. Of norovirus outbreaks caused by foodservice personnel, 54 percent of causes involve workers touching ready-to-eat foods with their bare hands.

Norovirus can remain infectious on foods even at freezing temperatures and until heated to about 140 degrees Fahrenheit. It can live on countertops and serving utensils for up to two weeks and resists many common disinfectants and hand sanitizers.

The CDC recommends taking the following steps to keep norovirus from spreading through the kitchen of your facility:

• Ensuring foodservice workers practice proper hand hygiene and avoid touching ready-to-eat foods (such as raw fruits and vegetables) with their bare hands before serving them 
• Certifying kitchen managers and training foodservice workers in food safety practices 
• Requiring sick workers to stay home and considering use of paid sick leave and on-call staffing to support compliance 

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