How has the pandemic affected the demand for flavor and fragrance ingredients?
As restaurants and food service establishments close or limit service, sales of retail grocery items continue to surge. We are experiencing an increase in order volume for flavor and color ingredients to keep up with this rising demand. Retailers are under great pressure to restock cleaning and sanitizing products, a critical public health need. Fragrance is a key ingredient in these products and production is especially critical now to meet the sudden increased consumer and retail demand.
What long-term impacts do you foresee for food and fragranced products?
We will see policy changes across the board. Many of the leading restaurant chains and food delivery platforms in the US have already made changes to their employee benefits and operations, in addition to implementing new sanitation processes. The pandemic will have lasting impacts on consumer behavior and business operations. We are taking a proactive approach to ideating new ways of doing business in a virtual environment to service and support our customers. This will include virtual food demos, tastings, fragrance trainings and innovation sessions.
Practically speaking, can you tell us more about what measures Flavorchem and Orchidia Fragrances are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19 between workers in plants, warehouses, and other operational facilities?
We implemented a Covid-19 response plan that outlines the company’s preventative measures. A few highlights include sanitizing common touch surfaces like keyboards, door handles, and chairs at least twice during each shift by authorized personnel. As an added safety precaution, we adjusted shifts to provide greater separation of employees. This is meant to allow time for the sanitizers to work and for air exchange. We are extremely grateful to all our dedicated employees who have changed their daily lives to accommodate these shift changes. Contactless drop zones have been designated across our campus for items that need to pass between multiple departments.
If any worker in a plant, warehouse, or other operational facility tests positive for COVID-19, what are you prepared to do to prevent other workers from contracting the virus?
The health and wellness of our employees, customers and partners is our top priority. We are prepared to do whatever is necessary to keep our employees safe and healthy. As long as we are able, our global operations will continue to function even under the most stringent protocols, so we can do our part to keep supply chains open and support essential food and fragrance manufacturing.