Can a safe, disposable eating utensil help your facility control the spread Covid-19?

EcoSecurity Utensil deeply appreciates the correctional community, and the brave men and women on the front lines. Correctional staff are in harm’s way every day. Daily news reports on the rapid spread of the coronavirus within jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers are frightening.

The World Health Organization has warned that prisons around the world can expect “huge mortality rates” from Covid-19 without immediate action, including screening.

Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director in Europe, told the UK Guardian publication:

“Covid-19 knows no boundaries; this includes transmission between detainees, facility staff, visitors, and undoubtedly extending outward to (re)infect the general public. Only the boldest of actions will slow and stop the spread of disease. We must not leave anyone behind in this fight.”

“Prison settings are both a threat for the transmission of infectious diseases, and an opportunity for its prevention and control.

“Having practised as a tuberculosis physician in prison systems, I wholeheartedly urge all governments to heed the guidance we have prepared through a rapid and global consultation process with experts.”

Did you know that the sanitary, disposable paperboard EcoSecurity® Utensil (ESU) can help you meet CDC, ACA, BOP, state and other guidelines for reducing the spread of COVID-19, while also reducing potential for harm to self or others.

• As recommended by the CDC for prison quarantine, all remnants of a meal should go into a lined trash bin kept within the isolation area. The disposable ESU can go right into the trash, preventing staff or others from handling contaminated utensils.
  
• For States/facilities requiring use of disposable flatware for Covid-19, ESU is the safest disposable; used and trusted by hundreds of facilities across the Country (click to see who).
  
• ESU allows in-cell meals to include normal menu items with a utensil– helping mitigate agitation over fingers-only menus for extended isolation/lockdown.
  Federal and state prisons are already implementing the ESU when providing ready-to-eat meals inside housing units or cells to control the spread of the coronavirus throughout all housing units.
  
• Inmates can be more anxious or aggressive due to lockdown and fears of infection; ESU removes another tool for harm to self or others.
• According to the Federal BOP Food Service Manual, self-service utensils “are handled, displayed, and dispensed so that contamination of food and lip-contact surfaces is prevented”. ESU comes stacked all facing one direction, and can be easily inserted into a vessel handle side up in, to meet these requirements.

A benefit of using the ESU along with all disposable food containers is that staff does not need to handle potentially highly contaminated flatware. All remnants of the meal can go into trash within the isolation area.

Request free samples of the ESU for your correctional facility or psychiatric hospital.