Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
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Table of Contents • Notables Class of 2007 the largest Vision Credits
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Food Protection Workshop features security expert When Rod Wheeler looks around food processing facilities to assess their security, he might find a small problem or two: an open door, a lax procedure on granting entry. Those problems would be enough to do significant damage for a determined terrorist or disgruntled person. Wheeler was a featured speaker during the Advanced Food Protection Workshop May 23-24, cosponsored by the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at the UA's Center for Continuing Education. The workshop was organized by Steve Seideman, Food Science extension specialist, and included presentations by Seideman on crisis management; Phil Crandall, Food Science, on the ALERT food security awareness initiative; Frank Jones, Poultry Science, on agricultural biosecurity; and Bill Hargrave, Information Systems, on the Radio Frequency Identification system. Other FDA, industry and university experts spoke on a variety of topics. Whether food is deliberately contaminated on the farm, at the processing plant, at a distribution center, at a retail outlet or in the home, the outcome stands to be the same. "Anywhere in the food chain: if we're vulnerable, we're vulnerable everywhere," Wheeler said. Wheeler performs "vulnerability assessments" for the food industry as part of his job as food defense specialist with the American Institute of Baking. He helps food companies develop and implement food safety and security plans. Wheeler recalled in 2004 that Tommy Thompson, then the secretary of health and human services, said he was surprised that there had not been a terrorist attack on the food supply because of the relative ease with which it could be done. That statement was accurate then, Wheeler said, but improvements across the industry since then made the food supply less vulnerable.
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