 
A: No. Food safety and food security are completely different issues, and must be addressed with different procedures.
- Food safety efforts strive to eliminate/reduce unintentional food contamination by the enforcement of rules or regulations to deter or minimize violations such as bad sanitation practices, improper holding temperatures, bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods, etc.
- Food security efforts strive to eliminate/reduce intentional contamination of food. This would include any type of intentional contamination, including that done by disgruntled employees, transnational terrorists, or domestic terrorists.
(Goodman, Travis, Journal of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, 3/1/2005)
Q: Why does business need to play an active role in homeland security? Isn’t the government taking care of it?
A: We all have a role to play in homeland security. Businesses bear the brunt of the impact of a potential incident, yet most are unprepared to respond to one. Without proactive preparation, the chances that you will lose your business if something happens are great.
- 85% of the country’s infrastructure is in the hands of private industry.
- 47% of businesses that experience a fire or major theft go out of business within two years.
- 44% of companies that lose records in a disaster never resume business.
- 93% of companies that experience a significant data loss are out of business within five years.
- Most businesses do not have an emergency or recovery plan even though they know it is important.
- The majority of businesses spend less than 3% of their total budget on business recovery planning.
(Food Marketing Institute, 2004)
Q: Will my facility become a crime scene if deliberate tampering or product contamination occurs?
A: Under the Department of Homeland Security National Response Plan, the FBI may view your product and facility as an “Incident of National Significance” as it would other terrorist threats and events.
Q: How can I stay in control of my product, facility, and resources in a crisis?
A: To retain control, you must understand the system. You must understand how the media will respond, what agencies are involved, and what is expected of you. For example, if the media releases a non-factual story involving your company’s name, your company has to react to it, and you’ve lost control of that situation. The only way to maintain control is to understand the system and have policies and procedures in place to respond to any contingency. Being proactive rather than reactive will better position you to respond to a crisis.
Q: Why should I test my food security program before a crisis occurs?
A: Many companies develop policies and procedures for food security and crisis management, but fail to test them in a variety of operational environments. Often what then happens is that in a real crisis you find out that your procedure isn’t adequate—you’ve neglected to include an important stakeholder or failed to plan for your business closing down for a week. Testing your program will uncover some of these problems, and put you in a better position to respond. Failure to test your program will result in greater losses and longer recovery times.
Q: If a crisis occurs, how will I be able to continue operating my business?
A: There are five critical elements to a crisis management approach that will ensure an effective business response to, and recovery from, a terrorist attack.
- Demonstrative leadership team. A strong management team that has been trained and rehearsed in potential crisis scenarios must direct your processes and activities.
- Effective and forthright communications management for internal and external stakeholders. In the food industry, this equates to establishing a crisis communications plan that recognizes the complexity of the interchange among all stakeholders, including government, industry, academia, media, and the public.
- Focused management of the business’s, client’s, and supplier’s operations. Given the complexity and vulnerability of the food supply chain, crisis operations require rapid decision-making at all levels of management.
- Hands-on financial management of the business throughout the crisis. With low margin, high volume, and maximum efficiency required in each food establishment, awareness of your situation and available options can make the difference for a rapid recovery.
- A strong, interactive public-private partnership within the community. In the food industry, regulatory public-private relationships exist today in the food safety world.
Q: What systems and processes does my community need in place to mitigate its vulnerability to a terrorist attack against food?
- You need to have a system in place for communication, both within and between organizations, before there is a crisis.
- You need to have contingency plans in place, both within and between organizations.
- You need to establish relationships between organizations before there is a crisis, and a rehearsed process to effectively utilize this partnership in a crisis. This partnership should have procedures in place to include government and industry in each other’s crisis management response and recovery operations.
Q: How is The Uriah Group different from other homeland security consulting firms?
A: Since our inception in 2002, The Uriah Group has emphasized the importance of the business infrastructure in a crisis situation. Our focus has been on establishing a public-private partnership as a starting point for enhancing our nation’s security. It starts with business operations and grows to include the government. This results in commitment and buy-in at all levels. The Uriah Group’s approach to food security is wrapped around the operations of a business. Our dedicated consulting services and reality-based training provide the business and the government with a unique perspective of the operational requirements of a food security crisis.
Q: What is different about Uriah Group reality-based tabletop exercises?
A: There are several factors that make our tabletop exercises different than anything else out there.
- We use interactive scenario-based videos to simulate real world (terrorist) situations in an informal but structured forum.
- We stimulate discussion of various issues regarding an imposed hypothetical situation.
- We stress and discuss existing plans, policies, and procedures.
- We assess needs of the business to guide the prevention, response to, and recovery from the “defined event.”
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