food defense

What is Food Defense?

Food Defense is the collective term used by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and others to describe activities associated with protecting the nation's food supply from intentional contamination.

The University of Tennessee’s Center for Industrial Services has partnered with seven states in a FDA sponsored pilot program to increase awareness and to help provide training on food defense for the food manufacturing industry. Food defense deals with the protection of the food supply from INTENTIONAL adulteration. This differs from food safety which is concerned with the UNINTENTIONAL contamination of the food supply. Many of our businesses are used to thinking in terms of food safety, and while both food safety and defense are concerned with contamination of the food supply, the food defense program helps companies understand how and where food supplies could be intentionally contaminated. Food defense threats often cannot be anticipated without intelligence information, and involve criminal acts. Such attacks on the food supply could feasibly occur at any point in food production, and the motivation might include causing illness or death, or producing economic or psychological damage, including consumer fear and loss of confidence in the food supply. In contrast, unintentional contamination of food products can be reasonably anticipated based on the type of food processing involved. Ensuring food safety is the purpose of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HAACP) regulations applicable in the production of certain foods.

Additionally, other Federal Agencies [e.g. USDA, DHS] are also striving to address Food Defense issues. UTCIS is also working cooperatively with the DHS funded Center for Agriculture and Food Security and Preparedness (CAFSP) which is directed by Dr. Sharon Thompson, of the University of Tennessee’s School of Veterinary Medicine.

The FDA has adopted three broad strategies for counterterrorism:

Prevention

• Development of an increased sense of awareness related to food defense issues
• Development of effective protection strategies to identify and shield the food supply from terrorist threats

Rapid Response

• Develop the capacity for rapid, coordinated response to a food borne terrorist attack

Recovery

• Develop the capacity for rapid, coordinated recovery from a food borne terrorist attack

Food defense is an important issue to all of us. If something happens to our food supply, it could have devastating economic impacts. The potential economic impacts are demonstrated by the economic value of food-related industries.

• In the U.S., agriculture accounts for about $1.24 trillion of the Gross Domestic Product.
• About 2% of all U.S. jobs (24 million Americans) are directly in the agricultural sector, and one in every six U.S. jobs relates to agriculture.
• In 2003, U.S. exports reached an estimated $60 billion.
• 2.2 million farms are located across the country
• There are more than 57,000 food processors in the U.S.
• There are more than 1.2 million retail food facilities nationwide

The purpose of our pilot program is to raise awareness about food defense issues. Our hope is to help industry prevent attacks on the food supply and to understand the importance of food defense.

A Food Defense survey was conducted by the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Food Processing Center.  Click here to download a copy of the Tennessee and National reports.

If you have any questions about food defense, call the CIS Office at 888-763-7439 or email Chris Wright at chris.wright@tennessee.edu