High Liner Foods suspends production at New Hampshire plant

Frozen seafood company High Liner Foods is pressing pause on one of its production plants where it has confirmed positive COVID-19 cases. The company’s Portsmouth, N.H. plant has had all production temporarily suspended and High Liner Foods has activated its COVID-19 response plan, which includes deep cleaning, contact tracing and risk assessment. 

"Our priority is the health and safety of our employees who are doing essential work supplying food to families across North America," said Rod Hepponstall, president and CEO of High Liner Foods. "We are maximizing all available resources to safeguard our people and ensure a steady supply of frozen seafood to meet the needs of retailers and consumers across North America during this unprecedented time."

The company, which is a major private label seafood supplier to North American retailers and distributors, said the plant would resume operations at the plant once it was safe to do so. In order to minimize supply impact, High Liner Foods said it had redirected a portion of the plant’s production to other plants in Newport News, Va., and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. It also noted that U.S. and Canadian officials have said COVID-19 is not a foodborne illness and that no evidence currently exists suggesting food is a likely source or route of transmission. 

High Liner Foods said that across its facilities, it has been adhering to governmental guidelines and working with regulators and public health authorities while supplementing its normal health-and-safety procedures with enhanced daily sanitation of all plants, as well as use of personal protective equipment. 

Among its efforts to protect employees, the company said it has increased sanitation frequency of common areas, enacted social distancing on production lines and floors where possible, staggered breaks and shifts to prevent groups from forming, created additional break rooms and communicated its procedures and protocols. High Line Foods said it also plans to introduce temperature screening for employees at its production facilities.