The Food and Drug Administration last week posted its Food Defense Mitigation Strategies Database, which the agency developed for the food industry to help protect the nation's food supply from deliberate acts of contamination or tampering. Designed for companies that process, store and distribute food and food ingredients, the database provides a range of preventive measures companies may choose to implement for better protection of their facilities, employees and operations.

"The database is a collection of mitigation strategies from a variety of sources, but many came from the collaborative Strategic Partnership Program on Agroterrorism and other joint government and private sector exercises," said Clay Detlefsen, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs. "The mitigation database and the strategies therein will be invaluable to companies as they work on their food defense plans, which now are part of the food safety plans required under the Food Safety Modernization Act."

The Food Defense Mitigation Strategies Database is available here.

In 2007, FDA published five guidance documents detailing security measures for all components of the food supply chain. More recently, FDA has developed several food defense tools to help companies conduct vulnerability assessments and determine suitable mitigation approaches. More details are available here.

Members with questions may contact Detlefsen at cdetlefsen@idfa.org.