The FDA released a handbook on Tuesday detailing how to convert trucks used to store human remains to trucks for carrying food.
The FDA released its “Returning Refrigerated Transport Vehicles and Refrigerated Storage Units to Food Uses After Using Them to Preserve Human Remains During the COVID-19 Pandemic” on Tuesday as a set of non-binding recommendations for industries that donated semi-trucks to hospitals for the purpose of storing human remains.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, additional refrigerated storage is needed for human remains,” the handbook says, “Therefore, refrigerated food transport vehicles and refrigerated food storage units ordinarily used for food preservation may be temporarily used to preserve human remains. (RELATED: Britain Won’t Let Company Show Commercial For Smoothies Before 9 PM Because Fruit Is Handled Too ‘Seductively’)
The FDA now has an entire handbook on how to convert your refrigerated truck from a coronavirus morgue back to hauling food
It is okay to still use the truck to move food even if bodily fluids from humans leaked onto the truck, FDA says https://t.co/JWbt8Ms2FK
— Rachel Premack (@rrpre) May 13, 2020
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 06: Refrigerated trucks functioning as temporary morgues are seen at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal on May 06, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Justin Heiman/Getty Images)
The guidelines state that the trucks must be “thoroughly cleaned and disinfected with EPA-registered cleaning materials, possibly requiring several cleanings.”
It also states that water or air cleaners should not be used and that workers “may need” protective equipment. The FDA also says that the truck is still good to use “if blood or bodily fluids leaked onto the truck’s interior surface” so long as the truck was not made out of fiberglass, wood, or any other material that cannot be properly disinfected.