• The Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment (CAMRA), led by Michigan
State University and Drexel University established jointly with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), fills critical gaps in risk assessments for mitigating
microbial hazards.
• The Center of Excellence for Zoonotic and Animal Disease Defense (ZADD), led
by Texas A&M University and Kansas State University, protects the nation’s agricultural and public health sectors against high-consequence foreign animal, emerging and zoonotic disease threats.
• The National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD), led by the University of Minnesota, defends the safety and security of the food system by
conducting research to protect vulnerabilities in the nation’s food supply
chain.
• The National Consortium for the Study
of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), led by the University of
Maryland, informs decisions on how to
disrupt terrorists and terrorist groups
through empirically grounded findings
on the human element of the terrorist
threat.
• The National Center for the Study of
Preparedness and Catastrophic Event
Response (PACER), led by Johns Hopkins University, optimizes our nation’s
preparedness in the event of a high-consequence natural or man-made disaster.
• The Center of Excellence for Awareness
& Location of Explosives-related
Threats (ALERT), led by Northeastern
University and the University of Rhode
Island, will develop new means and
methods to protect the nation from
explosives-related threats.
• The National Center for Border Security and Immigration (NCBSI), led by
the University of Arizona in Tucson (research co-lead) and the University of Texas
at El Paso (education co-lead), is developing technologies, tools and advanced
methods to balance immigration and commerce with effective border security.
• The Center for Maritime, Island and Remotes and Extreme Environment Security
(MIREES), led by the University of Hawaii and Stevens Institute of Technology,
focuses on developing robust research and education programs addressing maritime domain awareness to safeguard populations and properties in geographical
areas that present significant security challenges.
• The Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence (CHC), led by the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill and Jackson State University in Jackson, MS, performs research and develops education programs to enhance the nation’s ability to safeguard populations, properties and economies from catastrophic natural disaster.
• The National Transportation Security Center of Excellence (NTSCOE) was established in accordance with HR 1, implementing the recommendations of the 9/11
Commission Act of 2007 in August 2007. The NTSCOE will develop new technologies, tools and advanced methods to defend, protect and increase the resilience of the nation’s multimodal transportation. It comprises seven institutions.
• The Center of Excellence in Command, Control and Interoperability (C2I) led by
Purdue University (visualization sciences co-lead) and Rutgers University (data sciences co-lead) will create the scientific basis and enduring technologies needed to
“From a regulatory
perspective, several
new laws and
regulations
have been enacted in
recent years to help
supply chain.”
address the safety of the
global food
analyze massive amounts of information to detect security threats.
In light of pending regulations stemming from the FSMA, food and beverage companies must be cognizant of the
effectiveness of their suppliers’ food
safety and food defense programs. This is
especially important for imported products. Companies must develop close
interactions with ingredient vendors,
packaging providers, brokers, distributors
and other partnerships. Preventing
contaminated foods from reaching customers’ tables is primarily the responsibility of the vendor. Prior to the FSMA,
food and beverage companies voluntarily addressed intentional adulteration of
products. Now companies will be required to consider the potential for intentional adulteration as part of their
hazard analysis.
Food and beverage companies are increasingly aware of such challenges as
they continue to extend supply chains,
both domestically and abroad. Having
an effective food defense program complements a company’s food safety system and soon must be addressed to
comply with the new regulations soon to
be published by FDA as mandated by
the FSMA. FSMA Section 805 will be
added to the FD&C Act ( 21 U.S.C. §
385), requiring every U.S. importer to
perform risk-based foreign supplier verification activities to verify that the food it
imports is (a) produced in compliance
with the requirements of Section 418
(hazard analysis and preventive controls)
or Section 419 (produce standards); and
(b) is not adulterated under Section 402
or misbranded under Section 403(w)
(allergen labeling).
When it comes to food defense, according to the GAO, the federal government is not efficiently managing or
utilizing resources in the defense of the
nation’s food system. After the terrorist
attacks in 2001, President George W.
Bush and Congress initiated polices to
protect the food supply. Billions have
been spent, but according to Lisa
Shames, GAO’s Director of Natural Resources and the Environment, in her testimony before Congress, “There is no
centralized coordination to oversee the
federal government’s overall progress im-
