On Mar. 23, 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted the Food Defense Mitigation Strategies Database (MSD). The new database is one of several tools developed by the FDA for the food industry to help protect our nation's food supply from deliberate acts of contamination or tampering. This resource is designed for companies that produce, process, store, package, distribute and/or transport food or food ingredients. The MSD provides a range of preventive measures that companies may choose to implement to better protect their facility, personnel, products and operations.
In the MSD, the 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 in the database are:
• Materials
• Packaging
• Processing
• Storage
The nodes (that is, critical points and/or steps) under each category provide a range of preventive measures that pertain to one specific aspect of food production and distribution.
For example, some of the nodes under the category Retail Food Service are:
• Finished Product Storage
• Food Bar
• Retail Display
• Returned/Reshopped Products
For more information: www.fda.gov/Food/FoodDefense/ucm245544.htm
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
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