15 3.4: Food Defense
3.4 FOOD DEFENSE
Food Defense is the effort of the FDA to protect food from intentional contamination. Intentional food contamination refers to the deliberate addition of harmful or poisonous substances to food products (Hussain, 2016). This is considered a criminal act. A necessary preventative measure in food manufacturing is a food defense plan, a written document based on food defense principles. It incorporates a vulnerability assessment, includes mitigation strategies, and specifies food defense monitoring, corrective action, and verification procedures to be followed. Tampering with food can be an isolated incident, as in the case of a disgruntled food service worker or on a wider scale as in the case of a cult in Oregon that contaminated local salad bars with salmonella to influence an election (https://www.naccho.org/uploads/resource-hub-images/Food_Defense_-_Toolkit_for_Restaurants_1-id2998.pdf).
The FDA provides several Food Defense Initiatives to protect food from intentional contamination and assist facilities in preventing, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from threats of deliberate food contamination.
(https://www.hfpappexternal.fda.gov/scripts/fdplanbuilder/default.cfm)
A written food defense plan is essential for you to significantly minimize or prevent vulnerabilities related to intentional contamination of food. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-defense-tools/food-defense-plan-builder Though the FDA encourages the use of the Food Defense Plan tool, their older FDA ALERT tool is also designed to help food service businesses reduce the risk of intentional food contamination.
How do you ASSURE [ensure] that the supplies and ingredients you use are from safe and secure sources?
How do you LOOK after the security of the products and ingredients in your facility?
What do you know about your EMPLOYEES and people coming in and out of your facility?
Could you provide REPORTS about the security of your products while under your control?
What do you do, and whom do you notify if you have a THREAT or issue at your facility, including suspicious behavior?
https://www.food-safety.com/articles/4091-staying-alert-about-food-defense
