New FDA Tools to Improve Food Security

As part of the FDAs comprehensive Food Protection Plan initiative, the agency today released self-assessment tools for industry to minimize the risk of intentional contamination of food and cosmetics. The tools are companion pieces designed to make previously issued industry guidance documents more user-friendly and practical.

Food protection is one of FDAs top priorities and that means guarding against both intentional and unintentional contamination of foods. The tools FDA is providing will help members of the food and cosmetic industry identify opportunities to better guard against intentional contamination of their products, said David Acheson, acting center director, FDAs Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

In 2003, FDA issued a set of Food and Cosmetic Security Preventive Measures Guidance documents. These documents are aimed at operators of food and cosmetic establishments, as well as businesses that produce, process, store, repack, relabel, distribute, sell or transport foods, food ingredients, and cosmetics to help them minimize the risk of malicious, criminal, or terrorist actions involving products under their control.

The guidance documents are:

Using feedback from industry, FDA repackaged the information found in the guidance documents and created a corresponding self-assessment tool for each document. By using the tools, industry members can get a quick and detailed assessment of the measures they currently have in place to protect against intentional contamination of their products. With this consolidated information, it will be easy for them to see where meaningful improvements to their current practices can be made.