Food Terrorism, Possible, But Not Likely, Expert Says

Auburn, May 16, 2002 --- Food terrorism.  
It was an issue seldom thought about until September 11.  Now, many bioterrorism 
experts are thinking about it all the time.  
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has responsibility for safeguarding the 
nation’s food supply, is expected to spend almost $100 million this year hiring about 650 new 
food inspectors and adopting other measures to safeguard the U.S. food supply against 
bioterrorist attacks. 
	The 250 new inspectors already in place are monitoring every facet of the food 
distribution chain, following every link from the farm to the dinner table.  Food inspectors are also 
going through food-safety checklists for imported and domestic food alike to ensure the food 
never falls into the wrong hands or is diverted from its predetermined distribution route. 
	The Centers for Disease Control, which works closely with FDA safeguarding the food 
supply, also has established a rapid surveillance and response system that links CDC 
headquarters with state and local health departments instantaneously whenever potentially 
harmful pathogens turn up in food products.
	Still, the question remains: Will these steps be enough to protect Americans against an 
attempted terrorist attack?
	While conceding that no system is 100 percent foolproof, Dr. Jean Weese, an Alabama 
Cooperative Extension System food scientist, believes attacking the U.S. food supply on a 
massive scale is impractical for several reasons.
	“People are in the terrorist business because they think killing or harming the largest 
number of people is the most powerful way to make a political statement,” she says. “But 
tampering with the food supply isn’t an effective way to do that because it’s inefficient.”
	This inefficiency, Weese says, stems partly from the long food distribution chain, which 
increases the likelihood of a terrorist act being detected somewhere along the way before it 
reaches the consumer. 
	“Either someone detects it through the course of routine inspection, or someone along 
the chain gets sick from exposure,” she says.
	An added factor involves the small number of foods that actually could be contaminated 
through tampering.  
	Sealed potato chip bags, for example, are impractical, because they are blanketed with 
nitrogen, and the integrity of the back would have to be broken for tampering to take place. 
	One other factor working in the American consumer’s favor is the widespread adoption of 
a state-of-the-art food-inspection system known as HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control 
Points), designed to reduce human exposure to food throughout processing.  Indeed, one of the 
premises behind HACCP is that the fewer people in physical contact with food, the better.
	HACCP is designed to identify all of the critical points along the food production chain 
where contamination is likely to occur, Weese explains.
	Federal law now requires all of the nation’s meat, poultry, pork and seafood processing 
plants to have HACCP systems in place.  Many of the nation’s major food processors and 
providers – Pillsbury, McDonald’s and Burger King, for example -- also have adopted similar 
procedures. 
	One example of how HACCP-type procedures can be used to reduce human exposure to 
food is regularly used by Coca Cola.  
	“In this case, the syrup used in the making of the cola is shipped to the plant in a sealed 
container and is emptied directly into the tank where the ingredients are mixed, never coming into 
contact with humans,” Weese says.  
	“The water used in the beverage also is purified through automation and involves no 
human contact,” she adds.
	Even when the syrup and water are mixed together prior to bottling, it’s done in a facility 
with only a couple of people present, Weese says, and even then, there is no contact with the 
liquid.
	Food terrorism, while rare, is not new to the United States.  The most recent attack 
occurred almost two decades ago when followers of an Indian Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh 
apiked 10 salad bars in The Dalles, Oregon, with the potentially deadly salmonella pathogen.  
Roughly 750 residents were sickened from the exposure. 
(Source: Dr. Jean Weese, Extension Food Scientist, 334-844-3269.)