Nearly 7,000 gallons of Nebraska-made sanitizer has been donated for use by USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) employees around the country responsible for ensuring the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products. There are 6,500 FSIS field offices across the nation.

The USDA’s initial request included 6,500 gallons of hand sanitizer but deliveries have continued as the need remains – now totaling 6,700 gallons. An additional 6,500 gallons is planned to also be donated, mostly from a very generous donation of food grade (FCC) alcohol from Green Plains Inc., which has donated 81,000 gallons of FCC grade alcohol since the temporary hand sanitizer production facility began in early April. The project was spearheaded by the Nebraska Ethanol Board (NEB).

“Green Plains and our employees remain committed to providing high quality, FDA approved, FCC grade alcohol for the use in production of hand sanitizer,” said Todd Becker, president and CEO of Green Plains. “We are happy to be able to fill a need for the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service employees, as they work hard to keep America’s food supply chain safe.”

Other organizations, including BASF, Cargill, Johnson Matthey, Lee Containers, Phillips 66 Co., the State of Nebraska, and Syngenta have also contributed. The hand sanitizer production facility has a home in the parking lot of Nebraska Innovation Campus’ (NIC) Food Processing Center (FPC). Volunteers have mixed more than 60,000 gallons of hand sanitizer – all from donated raw materials – since the operation began April 5. Production will continue as long as resources allow. So far, every single gallon of product has been provided to these organizations at no cost. For more information about the project, visit handsanitizer.unl.edu.