Quality control and food safety during the covid-19 pandemic in public sectors in Brazil.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the food insecurity crisis in Brazil. The intense discrepancy between the most diverse social and economic realities that coexist in the Brazilian population was observed, leading to debates on food security. The work aims to analyze intervention methods and strategies applied by public institutions in the face of the crisis triggered by COVID-19 to mitigate food insecurity and better assimilate how these actions adapted in the face of the pandemic. This is an integrative review of the literature. The data search took place from November 2022 to April 2023. The inclusion criteria for the studies consisted of original articles, in Portuguese and English, published in the period between January 2020 and April 2023, which presented in their results considerations on strategies adopted by institutions to minimize food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, indexed in the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, Scientific Electronic Library Online and Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online databases. Articles that did not have an explicit methodology in the text, and studies that did not answer the study guiding question, were excluded. The keywords were used: “Quality Control”, “Food Safety”, “Public Sector” and “COVID-19 Pandemic”. The studies analyzed in this work demonstrate that actions that strengthen the food security are essential for controlling Foodborne Illnesses and improving individual quality of life. Furthermore, it can be seen that public bodies presented plausible resources for mitigating food insecurity, through carrying out educational actions and programs, health inspections, financial aid, publication of decrees and/or assertive guidelines that address the problem, as well as the adequacy of public policies.