What is Food Defense?
Food defense is not the same as food safety. Food defense focuses on protecting the food supply from intentional contamination, with a variety of chemicals, biological agents or other harmful substances by people who want to do us harm. These agents could include materials that are not
naturally-occurring or are not routinely tested for. An attacker’s goal might be to kill people or disrupt our economy. Intentional acts are generally not reasonable and are hard to predict.
Food safety addresses the accidental contamination of food products during processing or storage by biological, chemical or physical hazards. The main types of food safety hazards are microbes, chemicals and foreign objects. This unintentional contamination of food products can be
reasonably anticipated based on the type of processing. This principle is the foundation of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) process used to ensure food safety.
Who Might Adulterate a Food Product?
The table below lists some examples of the types of individuals who might be motivated to adulterate food products. You should contact your local law enforcement community for additional information about potential local threats to your facility.
