The FDA is launching their Food Defense Plan Builder, an effort to protect the food supply against intentional contamination due to sabotage, terrorism, counterfeiting, or other illegal means. It is designed to help operators of food facilities develop personalized food defense plans for their operations.
The potential contaminants include biological, chemical, and radiological hazards that are usually not found in food or production environments. Food defense is different from food safety, which is the effort to prevent unintentional contamination of food products by pathogenic bacteria and other agents that may be found naturally.
FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine Michael Taylor said about this project: “The FDA is committed to providing best practices and resources to support industry as we pursue our shared goal of protecting our food supply. We strongly encourage companies to take full advantage of the Food Defense Plan Builder.” After September 11, 2011, the FDA released tools to help the U.S. food industry protect against any possible attacks.
This free program is voluntary, but the FDA is encouraging all food facilities to develop and implement a food defense plan. The Plan Builder is not connected to the FDA’s computers, no contact information is needed to download the tool, and its use is not tracked or monitored by the government.
