Meat-packing giant offers to store Covid vaccine in ultra-cold freezers

Smithfield Foods, the world’s biggest pork producer, said that it had offered to help health officials store Covid-19 vaccines in their “ultra-cold” freezers as part of a nationwide distribution push.

The company is “ready and willing to assist health agencies should storage capacity become constrained,” chief administrative officer, Keira Lombardo, told Reuters in a statement on Thursday.

Health officials across the US are racing to secure proper freezer space needed to store the coronavirus vaccine.

Pfizer’s version needs to be stored at minus 70 Celsius, far colder than the norm for most vaccines, while Moderna’s needs temperatures of minus 20.