In the US, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) signed an agreement this week to establish a public/private sector partnership with the Food Industry Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC).
According to a statement, the ISAC has a threefold mission: to provide information and analysis that will enable the food industry to report, identify and reduce its vulnerabilities to attacks; to help the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Operations Unit identify credible threats and craft specific warning messages for the industry; and provide experts to help the FBI assess specific threats.
FMI CEO TimHammonds said: "What's new today is that in the wake of 11 September all of America's strategic industries are now on the front lines of the war on terrorism. We invite all segments of the food industry to contact us so that we can develop a co-operative approach to prevent deliberate acts that would threaten the safety of our food supply and the customerswe serve."
NIPC directorRonald L Dick added: "The food industry is so large and diverse that there are literally thousands of contact points. But the entire industry comes together in the supermarket. That makes FMI a logical organisation to co-ordinate an industry-wide effort."
All proprietary ISAC reports of threats or actual incidents voluntarily shared with the government are treated by the FBI and NIPC as sensitive information that is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom ofInformation and Trade Secrets Acts.
The NIPC is the assessment, warning and law enforcement entity for threats or attacks against the US.