Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meat industry in the United States

Workers in an American hog slaughtering and processing plant

The meat industry has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[1] Outbreaks of the virus took place in factories operated by the meat packing industry and the poultry processing industry. These outbreaks affected dozens of plants, leading to closures of some factories and disruption of others, and posed a significant threat to the meat supply in the United States. The damage the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the meatpacking industry was unexpected and resulted in a sharp reduction of meat processing and capacity reduction of meatpacking companies.[2]

By September 13, 2020, at least 42,534 workers at meatpacking plants had contracted the coronavirus, and at least 203 had died. COVID-19 cases had been discovered in at least 494 meatpacking plants.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference WSJ Tyson Turns to Robot Butchers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Ijaz, Muawuz; Yar, Muhammad Kashif; Badar, Iftikhar Hussain; Ali, Sher; Islam, Md. Shafiqul; Jaspal, Muhammad Hayat; Hayat, Zafar; Sardar, Aneeqa; Ullah, Sana; Guevara-Ruiz, Denise (2021). "Meat Production and Supply Chain Under COVID-19 Scenario: Current Trends and Future Prospects". Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 8: 660736. doi:10.3389/fvets.2021.660736. ISSN 2297-1769. PMC 8137951. PMID 34026895.
  3. ^ Kindy, Kimberly (September 13, 2020). "More than 200 meat plant workers in the U.S. have died of covid-19. Federal regulators just issued two modest fines". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 13, 2020.