Food Defense - The First Line of Defense
Orlando, Florida (PRWEB) April 18, 2017 -- The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA, 2011) is composed of seven foundational rules. One of the seven is Mitigation Strategies to Protect Food against Intentional Adulteration, commonly known as “Food Defense”. Preventive Controls and Foreign Supplier requirements receive a lot of press, but Food Defense has largely run under the radar. However, this is a dangerous risk for companies, who are legally required to perform a vulnerability assessment and take steps to protect food that is considered at-risk for intentional adulteration, such as bulk storage and shipments.
Food Defense was enacted to prevent events such as disgruntled employees returning to their former employers to wreak havoc. An effective vulnerability assessment from an experienced provider can reveal areas of the facility that are open to attack, whether from terrorists, disgruntled employees or people out to hurt others. Doors propped open, which are supposed to remain locked from the inside, are a primary source of entry. Contractors or visitors that are not authorized to enter sensitive areas, but steal or use another person’s access card are another potential source of trouble.
Often these potential areas of concern go unnoticed because they become part of the landscape, and no longer stand out. As every victim of an armed robbery or workplace shooting can tell you, nothing bad ever happens, until it does. Employees may get lulled into a false sense of security because their plant is located far from the nearest neighbors, but these remote locations are ideal for armed robberies because emergency personnel cannot respond in a timely fashion, so the bad guys are long gone before the cops arrive. Taking steps to protect a company and all the employees can go a long way towards effectively addressing an emergency when it does arise.
Do you know what your local police would tell you if you had a bomb threat and called to ask them for help? On private property, without a history of previous violence, they would probably tell you to call back if something explodes. Does your receptionist know how to handle a caller making a threat to the company? What would your employee do if they opened an envelope which contained white powder and a threatening note made from cut-out letters? These situations can and do happen in the real world, and a simple training session can be the difference between life and death or between containing a threat versus allowing it to escalate. These examples demonstrate just a few situations where Food Defense training is crucial for front line employees.
D. L. Newslow & Associates, Inc. is pleased to have partnered with Mr. Rod Wheeler to offer this specialized training. Rod Wheeler is regularly featured on Fox Business as an expert on homeland security and defense. He has over 20 years’ experience as a beat cop in high-crime Washington, D.C. combined with his specialized work for Homeland Security. He is now in the private sector and is available for vulnerability assessments at your location. He can tell you how to use just 8 cameras to effectively protect your entire facility by placing them in the most critical locations. Rod can keep your company from spending excessively on ineffective protection mechanisms that create a false sense of security.
If Rod cannot come to your facility in person, D. L. Newslow offers public Food Defense courses where you can learn from Mr. Wheeler in an intimate, relaxed atmosphere. His workshops focus on the needs of the attendees and include breakout sessions with a vulnerability assessment conducted on the training facility by attendees. His classes are engaging and exciting, and he uses videos and real-life stories to demonstrate the importance of Food Defense.
Call D. L. Newslow & Associates, Inc. at (407) 290-2754 to sign up for a Food Defense course in New Orleans, Louisiana or Orlando, Florida, or to arrange a site visit and vulnerability assessment from Rod Wheeler. Check out our website at https://newslow.com/registration/food-defense for course information and registration. We also offer training in Preventive Controls for Human and Animal Food (PCQI), Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP), Sanitary Transportation and much more!
Erika Miller, D.L. Newslow & Associates, Inc., http://www.newslow.com, +1 8132708038, [email protected]
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