The coronavirus (COVID-19) is impacting all of us on a global scale. In order to safeguard the health- and well-being of our employees, customers, consumers and their families, we will do everything we can to help contain the virus.
Governments around the world consider both the medical and the food industry as strategic sectors during this crisis. Puratos and its customers supply ingredients/products which feed millions of people around the globe. Therefore, we are socially responsible for keeping our activities going.
At Puratos, dedicated coordination teams, on both local and global level, are following the information and guidance being made available by official authorities. Our procedures have been adapted accordingly, throughout the world.
General precautionary measures at Puratos
Our top priority is to help prevent the virus from spreading.
Instructions from the World Health Organization on basic hygiene precautions are available for all and include:
- Wash your hands frequently with soap and disinfect them o Maintain at least 1 meter (3 feet) distance between people
- Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth
- Cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately in a closed bin.
- Avoid shaking hands
- Stay home and call a doctor if you have any flu-like symptoms
Visual reminders of these guidelines are shared regularly and shown in several areas across the company via posters and on TV screens.
Sanitizers and alcohol gels are available in key areas.
We have increased the frequency of cleaning offices, desks and meeting rooms (including floors, surfaces, door handles, hand rails, …).
Safeguarding Puratos employees
Puratos has a smart working policy in place. All employees who can appropriately perform their job from home, have to work at home.
In order to protect our employees who need to work on-site, we have general precautionary measures in place (see above), but additional protective measures have also been applied:
- Employees are asked to avoid sharing material (like for example pens).
- Shared equipment in our production facilities (forklifts, electric pallet trucks, …) is sanitized with alcohol after each usage.
- Employees in our production sites use gloves and change them at least after each shift.
- The amount of people that are at the same time in changing rooms is minimized in order to respect the 1 meter distance guideline.
- Movements across production departments is limited.
Protecting Puratos' customers and business partners
Meetings are replaced as much as possible with calls or video-conferencing. If a meeting needs to take place, then a 1 meter (3 feet) distance between people has to be respected.
Visits to our facilities are limited to a strict minimum and we have strict health screening measures.
- We screen the temperature of all employees & visitors who want to enter one of our facilities (offices or production sites). Anyone with ≥37,3°C or flu-like symptoms will be denied access to our premises.
- Guests are asked to follow our required hygiene measures like cleaning and disinfecting the hands.
- Visitors need to sign a disclaimer where they state not being ill nor have any flu-like symptoms.
- Truck drivers should not leave their vehicles. Puratos personnel will take/bring documents from/to them wearing a mask and gloves.
- Once on our premises, movements across the site are limited.
Travel restrictions are in place. All international travels of our staff is postponed in order to help contain the virus.
We also postponed or cancelled all our internal and external events.
A stable supply of food is of paramount importance
We are aware that the unpredictability of the COVID-19 situation may cause you understandable concerns. As your reliable partner we would like to reassure you that we take all possible actions in order to support you and minimize impact on your daily business. We will also keep you informed about any major evolution should the situation require it.
- The COVID-19 situation is currently not affecting our production which is running as planned.
- We are in permanent contact with our suppliers around the world in order to proactively identify any potential shortage of raw materials. Contingency plans are in place to ensure supply.
As we emerge from this period, we will continue to operate using the lessons learned, of an ever changing global environment. Let’s all together look forward to a brighter future and find hope in China, where we see that the virus is almost contained.
Take care of yourself and those around you.
