In Brief

Three Ideas to Beef Up Food Security

RFIDs and other steps to protect the security and safety of food

By Todd Datz

Lane emphasizes that building partnerships is key to agroterrorism prevention across the Midwest. "Local law enforcement must become partners with industryhistorically, there has never been partnership. Second, law enforcement and animal health and public health officials must sit down and work together," he says.

Lane and Agroguard are ahead of the pack in thinking about mitigating the risk to the food supply, says Nevil Speer, an associate professor of animal science in Western Kentucky University's agriculture department. "Agroguard to me is the very best system we could use to try and prevent [an attack]. We need to take that thing nationwide."

Work with suppliers to improve security controls.

Mark Cheviron, corporate vice president and director of security and services for Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), says one of the most important steps in food chain security is to know who your suppliers are.

ADM, one of the biggest agricultural processors in the world, turns crops into food ingredients, animal feed ingredients and renewable fuels. Cheviron says that when a supplier drives a load of grain to a grain elevator, the vehicle is checked and the driver is given a pass, which he then gives to a person at the dumping site. If the grain is loaded onto a railcar, the car is sealed and the seal is checked when loaded and unloaded. If the seal is broken, the receiver won't accept it, says Cheviron. The same holds true for finished products such as sweetener. If the seal is broken, the customerCoke, for examplewill reject the whole car. Trucks are sealed as well.

At ADM's processing plants, food safety has always been an important issue. "It wasn't 9/11 that sparked that; it was the Tylenol case," he says, referring to the 1982 tampering incident. But the company did undertake a thorough review of its security following 9/11. A 2003 letter provided by Cheviron (headed "To whom it may concern" and signed by ADM President and COO Paul Mulhollem) cites measures such as improved perimeter protection and access controls, and the sealing of empty bulk containers to reduce the possibility of contamination of a container before it's reloaded.

Send comments on this story to Senior Editor Todd Datz via e-mail at tdatz@cxo.com.

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