'Food supply chain is breaking:' Could the Triangle face meat shortages?

Tyson Foods said millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chains as the coronavirus pushes food processing plants to close.

"There's not a meat shortage right now, but there will be in the future," said Katie Carter-Jones, a Livestock Agent for Craven & Pamlico County.

"The food supply chain is breaking," warned Tyson Foods this past Sunday.

Shoppers in the Triangle are already complaining of having some trouble finding meat, visiting multiple stores to find what they need.

This comes after one of the country's largest meat processors closed a massive pork plant in Iowa because of a coronavirus outbreak.

"If you have less people and it takes you longer to sanitize and disinfect, you can obviously see that it's going to take you longer to process animals over time," said Margaret Ross, Eastern Area Specialized Poultry Agent.

"That's going to depend with how many more closures we have on our plants," said Carter-Jones.

When plants reopen, there is concern they won't be at 100% capacity--mainly because of the new cleaning protocols for plants.

For now, most stores are stocked, but fear the latest news will push people to start hoarding, making the situation much worse.

Experts and customers alike advise to stay calm, only buy what you need and leave enough so other shoppers can get food themselves.