Care home meals provider apetito is participating in a rapid testing pilot scheme with the Department of Health & Social Care and Defra that helps to detect asymptomatic cases of Covid-19.
The company has been piloting Lateral Flow Testing (LFT) since last month at its food production and distribution sites in south-west England, testing around 450 of its frontline essential workers.
Under the programme, all apetito’s manufacturing and distribution staff are tested on a voluntary basis every week with results available in 30 minutes.
apetito said the testing has meant the company can “act quickly” should an individual test positive and has been instrumental in identifying asymptomatic cases.
The company now plans to extend the pilot across to more sites across the UK.
“apetito has a critical role in providing food during the pandemic. We serve some of the most vulnerable and ‘at risk’ in hospitals, care homes, nurseries, and schools. And ‘at home’ through Meals on Wheels and Wiltshire Farm Foods,” said director of corporate affairs and policy Lee Sheppard.
“Having seen the benefits, we were keen to support the government’s drive for food industry rapid testing – it’s crucial that we all work together to combat this virus and keep essential services running,” he added.
Baroness Dido Harding, interim executive chair of the National Institute for Health Protection added:
“This pilot is one of many which will inform our understanding of how rapid asymptomatic testing can be operationalised in the real world; to protect those at high risk, find the virus and help us go back to as normal a way of life as possible”.
The rapid testing scheme is built on procedures already implemented across apetito’s business since March.
This includes temperature monitoring of all staff and visitors to site, the creation of working cohorts and staff segregation, extended production lines to facilitate social distancing, one-way circuits, the use of perspex screens within the kitchens and the development of an app-based desk-booking system to control numbers on site.
Expansion of asymptomatic testing will identify more positive cases of Covid-19 and ensure those infected self-isolate, protecting those who cannot work from home and vital services.
apetito said this programme is crucial given that around one in three people have coronavirus without displaying any symptoms, meaning they could unknowingly spread the virus to others.
