The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in collaboration with the Center
for Disease Control (CDC) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will launch
its food defense awareness training kit for First-Line Employees in the food
and agriculture industry from farm to table. The FIRST training kit is the
second in a line of Food Defense Awareness Materials. ALERT, a program that was
issued in July 2006, also focuses on prevention and identifies key points that
supervisors and managers in industry and businesses can use to raise awareness
of food defense issues and decrease the risks of intention food contamination.
Employees FIRST is a food defense awareness initiative for employees that
food industry management can include in their ongoing food defense training
programs. FIRST will educate front-line industry workers from farm to
table about the risk of intentional food contamination and the actions they can
take to identify and reduce risks including:
F –FOLLOW company food defense plan and procedures I –INSPECT your work area and surrounding areas R –RECOGNIZE anything out of the ordinary S –SECURE all ingredients, supplies and finished product T –TELL management if you notice anything unusual or suspicious
Availability
of Kit: Single copies of the kit will be available in English
and Spanish. The kit is packaged in a self-mailer and it includes: 1 DVD;
4-color front and back poster in English and Spanish; and on-screen
instructions for use. In addition, a web-ready version will be made available
late October 2008. Copies of the kit may be obtained by ordering online from
the Food Defense & Terrorism website (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/fooddefense)
or an email to marion.allen@fda.hhs.gov.
Contact: Marion V. Allen, Center for Food Safety and
Applied Nutrition, Food Defense Oversight Team (HFS-007), Food and Drug
Administration, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD 20740, Phone: (301)
436-1584, email: marion.allen@fda.hhs.gov.