Winning Back the Consumer’s Confidence and Ensuring Consumer Safety in the COVID-19 Regime is Necessary for Revival of the Processed Food Industry

The pandemic COVID-19 has tremendously affected the food industry, particularly, the restaurants and other food vendors (FVs) that serve ready-to-eat foods. These food industries have been badly hit not only because of the lock down, imposed for COVID-19 containment, but also because of the consumer's concern for food safety. To revive the processed food industry, it is necessary to win back the consumer's confidence, which in turn requires a number of steps to be taken by both the policy makers and the food business operators. In this context, the present article describes how the maintenance of hygiene at places of food production would be important for the food industry in the COVID-19 regime. It has recommendations that could be useful for both food safety regulators and food business operators.