NCFPD Director Shaun Kennedy offers his food defense expertise during a tour. NCFPD recently hosted representatives from Thailand and Peru for an advanced food defense workshop. Photo by Nick Hanson

Food defense? What’s that?

Food defense as well as food safety fall under the umbrella of food protection. The difference is that food defense takes aim at preventing someone from intentionally contaminating food. Food safety, on the other hand, refers to the measures taken to stop unintentional food contamination from happening. The U of M’s National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD) focuses on the first.

What does NCFPD do?

Simply put, NCFPD’s goal is to curb any potential attacks on the global food supply chain, which would surely have disastrous effects. The center’s main efforts are research and education.

For example, NCFPD recently hosted representatives from Thailand and Peru for an advanced food defense workshop funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Service and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – a prime example of the center’s outreach and educational efforts. The international food defense training workshop was the first of its kind, designed to build capacity abroad to prevent deliberate contamination of the food supply chain.

The workshop

The food industry and academia participants were selected for this pilot program because they already had previous training in food safety and defense and expressed an interest in advancing the food defense efforts in their respective institutions, countries and regions.

This training is an opportunity to raise the level of awareness in the complex and global food chain that has evolved, said Morgan Hennessey, assistant program director for NCFPD.

“The food supply of the United States is increasingly sourced from a complex global supply chain,” Hennessey said. “Working with international partners and collaborating with federal agencies to train foreign food safety and defense experts will have benefits both for the safety and the quality of the food consumed in the United States.”

The program included workshops presented by members of NCFPD and tours of local food processing plants in the community. The participants visited processing sites featuring a wide array of products ranging from baked items such as bread to eggs as well as dairy products like milk, ice cream and cheese.

While many of these products are manufactured in the participants’ respective countries, the directors thought it would be helpful to see a variety of different food processing environments, learn how to distinguish the different types of machinery used, and how the food could intentionally be harmed in each setting.

While learning about how the facilities operate, the group of international representatives were also taught about intentional contamination scenarios. Preventative strategies against both deliberate and accidental contamination were provided as part of the training.

For example, when visiting the St. Paul Campus food pilot plant and laboratory, instructor and NCFPD Director Shaun Kennedy and Senior Lab Services Coordinator Jodi Nelson offered their food defense expertise during a tour.

What’s next?

Since the food supply chain is becoming more complex and global, one of the challenges NCFPD is facing is learning how to distinguish the differences between an intentional foodborne illness outbreak and an unintentional one. Food safety expert Craig Hedberg, from the School of Public Health, is in the beginning stages of research to potentially help answer this question.

Meanwhile, NCFPD will continue to host seminars and workshops, increase their educational efforts both nationally and internationally and develop best practices to detect contaminations. Everyone along the supply chain as well as the consumers have much to gain from this increased diligence in food protection.
 
-- Laura Wallenta