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USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service expects that at
least 90 percent of meat, poultry and processed egg supply
establishments will voluntarily adopt food defense plans,
and if that goal isn't reached in the near future, the agency
says, it may mandate their creation.
The tough talk is part of a notice to inspectors that FSIS
is conducting a Food Defense survey of establishments through
the Performance-Based Inspection System, beginning August
1. It's the third such survey the agency has done.
The first survey, done in August 2006, showed that 27 percent
of facilities had a food defense plan. The second, done
in November 2007, showed a small increase to 31 percent
of establishments having adopted such a plan.
A food defense plan is intended to "minimize the risks of
intentional contamination of food products," FSIS said.
The agency also notes that, based on feedback from the initial
survey, some changes have been made to this version to improve
accuracy in the results. |
