Employee Food Defense Training Kits Now Available

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in collaboration with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will launch its food defense awareness training kit for First-Line Employees in the food and agriculture industry from farm to table.

The FIRST training kit is the second in a line of Food Defense Awareness Materials.

ALERT, a program that was issued in July 2006, also focuses on prevention and identifies key points that supervisors and managers in industry and businesses can use to raise awareness of food defense issues and decrease the risks of intention food contamination.

Employees FIRST is a food defense awareness initiative for employees that food industry management can include in their ongoing food defense training programs. FIRST will educate front-line industry workers from farm to table about the risk of intentional food contamination and the actions they can take to identify and reduce risks including:

F — FOLLOW company food defense plan and procedures
I — INSPECT your work area and surrounding areas
R — RECOGNIZE anything out of the ordinary
S — SECURE all ingredients, supplies and finished product
T — TELL management if you notice anything unusual or suspicious

Single copies of the kit will be available in English and Spanish. The kit is packaged in a self-mailer and it includes: a DVD; a four-color front and back poster in English and Spanish; and on-screen instructions for use. In addition, a Web-ready version will be made available late October 2008.

Copies of the kit may be obtained by ordering online from the Food Defense and Terrorism or by sending an e-mail to marion.allen@fda.hhs.gov.