Food Biosecurity
Food biosecurity has become a high-priority
area in food safety, in parallel with other
bio-terrorism and agro-terrorism issues.
For example, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration
have called for proposals for risk assessments
and for implementation of plans at the food-processing
level. Food biosecurity at the preharvest
level often overlaps with general biosecurity
plans to prevent the introduction of new
animal diseases into the population. CSREES
is taking steps to help address three special
biosecurity areas:
- food safety risk assessment
- security plans at the food-processing
level, and
- facilitating communications.
In 2005, CSREES’ National
Integrated Food Safety Initiative (NIFSI) program
funded two related Special Emphasis Grants:
- Food
Biosecurity: Modeling the Health, Economic,
Social and Psychological Consequences
of Intentional and Unintentional Food
Contamination; Rutgers University,
New Brunswick, NJ; $2 million. This multidisciplinary,
multi-institutional project seeks to
improve food biosecurity through enhanced
threat prevention and response, risk
management and communication, and public
education efforts.
- NCFPD-AFDO
Project to Support and Promote Inter-Governmental
Collaboration on Food Protection and
Defense; University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, MN; $2 million. This project
will develop a network between the National
Center for Food Protection and Defense
and the Association of Food and Drug
Officials to facilitate communication
among local, state, and federal facilities.
CSREES supported a research colloquium by
the American Society for Microbiology in
the fall of 2003 called “Preharvest
Food Safety and Security.” In addition,
there were two grants dealing with food biosecurity:
- Food Safety Risk Assessment at North
Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
- Validation of Spore Surrogates to Assure
Safety and Security of Processed Foods
at Rutgers, The State University of New
Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.
There were no NIFSI food biosecurity grants
awarded in 2004. Information on the 2006
NIFSI grants will be announced at a later
date.
As funding becomes available, more research
and education programs will be developed.
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