FACT SHEET l Ohio Department of Agriculture
Governor Bob Taft Lieutenant Governor Jennette B. Bradley Director Fred L. Dailey		Communications Office 8995 East Main Street • Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068 Phone: 614-752-9817 • Fax 614-466-4346 ODA URL: www.ohioagriculture.gov • e-mail: agri@odant.agri.state.oh.us

FACT SHEET FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               

November 18, 2003

Contact: Mark Anthony, ODA Communications, 614-752-9817

FACT SHEET: ODA, FDA Host Statewide

‘Food Security’ Seminars for Processors

Starting October 9 and running through December 3, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) has been offering a series of half-day “Food Security” seminars to the food processing industry in Ohio, working in concert with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In 12 sessions at locations across the state, food safety officials from ODA have been relaying experts’ views on the potential for a terrorist attack against the food supply and what food processors themselves should do to help prevent it.

FDA officials at the sessions have outlined how to comply with a new requirement to register food companies in a federal database to better assure rapid communications no matter where in the country a crisis occurs. All facilities that manufacture, process, pack, distribute, receive, or hold food or animal feed in the U.S. are being required to register with FDA by Dec. 12.

Food Supply is Vulnerable

The state’s primary message at the sessions is that the malicious contamination of food for terrorism purposes “is a real and current threat” that can be thwarted. Charles Kirchner, a registered sanitarian in ODA’s Division of Food Safety, is the lead presenter for the state.

In his presentations, Kirchner defines food terrorism as “an act or threat of deliberate contamination of food in order to cause injury or death to the civilian population, designed ultimately to disrupt social, economic, or political stability.” 

ODA cautions Ohio food processors that the food supply is vulnerable from “farm to table” – that deliberate contamination of food by chemical, biological, or radio-nuclear agents could occur at many points along the food chain.

Kirchner notes that the nature and extent of the U.S. food supply’s vulnerability has been studied on the federal level, and a comprehensive report on the subject remains classified. But much can be learned about the potential impact of such an attack, he says, from what has happened in the wake of unintentional foodborne disease outbreaks in the modern world.

 Harm from Past Outbreaks

For example, a 1991 Hepatitis A outbreak sickened 300,000 people in China – all as a result of contaminated clams. In 1994, an outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis sickened 224,000 people in U.S. The source was contaminated ice cream.

The economic impact alone of food contamination is daunting. In a 1989 case, the discovery of Chilean grapes contaminated with cyanide resulted in a recall of all Chilean fruit from Canada and the U.S. That and a boycott by American consumers caused losses of a several hundred million dollars and bankrupted 100 growers and shippers.

In 1998, a U.S. company recalled 14 million pounds of hot dogs and luncheon meats due to contamination by the Listeria bacterium. The parent company closed the plant at a cost of at least $50 million.

Kirchner maintains that while government agencies like ODA and FDA have a regulatory and advisory responsibility to promote safe food handling, the food industry itself has the primary responsibility for assuring the safety of the food it produces. It does that by following good manufacturing and agricultural practices.

Ways to Prevent Food Terrorism

The keys to preventing food terrorism, he is telling processors, are to enhance existing food safety programs and implement reasonable security measures. ODA and food safety inspectors in other states have been directed by FDA to verbally consult with industry on security matters by offering helpful guidance on apparent shortcomings and how they may be corrected.

The FDA has distributed a guidance document recommending food security preventive measures to food processors and wholesalers nationwide – firms of all sizes that produce, process, store, repack, re-label, distribute, or transport food or ingredients in the U.S.

The document identifies ways to minimize the risk that food under their control will be subject to tampering or other criminal or terrorist actions. It focuses the job of “food security management” on several target areas, such as the physical facility, employees, computer systems, raw materials and packaging, operations, and finished products.

Tips and Tactics

That wide range is explored through dozens of practical tips outlined in Kirchner’s training sessions. Here are a few examples of what food business owners are being advised to do:

• Conduct daily security checks for signs of tampering.

• Investigate missing stock and other irregularities.

• Check immigration status and conduct criminal background checks on employees.

• Know who is and who should be on the premises.

• Establish a system of positive employee identification.

• Limit facility access to what is necessary for an employee’s position.

• Prevent personal items in food handling areas.

• Inspect incoming and outgoing vehicles.

• Check visitors, issue visitor badges, and require proof of identity.

• Minimize places that may serve as temporary hiding places for intentional contaminants.

• Use known sources of raw materials and packaging supplies.

• Inspect incoming products for signs of tampering or counterfeiting.

• Request supplies be delivered in locked and sealed vehicles and containers.

• Develop an emergency product recall plan, including up-to-date customer contact information.

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 For more information on protecting agriculture and the food supply, please go to ODA’s Homeland Security/Biosecurity web page at www.ohioagriculture.gov/pubs/divs/hsec/hsec-index.stm.