FDA Launches Food Defense Database

WASHINGTONThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched its Food Defense Mitigation Strategies Database (MSD) to help protect the U.S. food supply from deliberate acts of contamination or tampering.

MSD was designed for companies that produce, process, store, package, distribute, and/or transport food or food ingredients, and provides a number of preventive measures companies can use to implement to better protect their facility, personnel, products and operations.

Recommended safety measures are organized into categories and sub-categories called nodes that address each step of the food production and distribution process. Some of the categories include Materials, Packaging, Processing and Storage. Nodes under each category provide a range of preventive measures that pertain to one specific aspect of food production and distribution. Some of the nodes under the category Retail Foodservice include finished Product Storage, Food Bar, Retail Display and Returned/Re-shopped Products.