Food Tampering A Very Real Terror Threat
July 28, 2008 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
The deliberate contamination of the nation’s food supply is a serious threat.
In January 2004 the Bush administration responded to the threat of contamination of the nation’s food supply with a Homeland Security Presidential Directive, according to an April report from Trust For America’s Health titled “Fixing Food Safety: Protecting America’s Food Supply From Farm-to-Fork.”
The directive calls for a coordinated national approach to countering threats to the food supply. The directive tasked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with leading national food defense efforts while working in coordination with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Despite increased responsibility and concern, the Food and Drug Administration has not received additional funding to support food-related anti-terrorism activities, while the USDA has received an additional $150 million, the TFAH report said.
One tool used by the FDA and the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is a computer program that assesses the vulnerabilities within supply systems and infrastructure.
