Front-Line Employee's Role in Food Defense

The role of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the food industry is to ensure that consumers have safe food to eat. To accomplish this goal, FDA has issued requirements to prevent food from being adulterated, either accidentally or intentionally, and these requirements are based on food safety and food defense measures. It is helpful to understand the difference between food defense and food safety. Both food safety and food defense involve activities to minimize or prevent adulteration of the food supply. However, FDA uses the term “food defense” to mean the effort to protect food from intentional acts of adulteration, while food safety is concerned with the unintentional adulteration of the food supply. Food safety measures are designed to protect against all types of contaminants that are reasonably likely to occur, and food defense protects against biological, chemical, physical, and radiological agents that have been introduced into the food with the intent to cause harm. The motivation for an intentional attack might include causing illness or death, or producing economic or psychological damage, including consumer fear and loss of confidence in the food supply.

Intentional adulteration of the food supply could occur at any point in food production. In contrast, many instances of unintentional contamination of food products can be reasonably anticipated for reasons including the type of food being produced and the type of manufacturing and processing activities the food is undergoing. One of the main ways to ensure food safety is to use the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) approach for the production of certain foods. HACCP and other preventive measures are routinely used in food production. In addition to preventive measures for food safety, food defense measures can also be implemented to ensure the safest food supply for consumers. The FDA has issued regulations that deal with preventive measures for both food safety and food defense.

Although food defense and food safety programs are different, both rely on front-line employees to protect our food supply from farm-to-fork. This lesson introduces the "farm-to-fork" concept, discusses some food defense measures, and explains the importance and responsibilities of the front-line employee in supporting food defense measures.