06/28/05 -- Largely unnoticed by local school boards, the federal government has been taking precautions against terrorists tampering with food destined for school cafeterias.
Although numerous documents on the topic can be found on government websites, the issue recently garnered attention when a federal official talked about the potential threat to school lunches at a conference of the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO).
“The school lunch program is particularly vulnerable,” Carol Maczka, an administrator with the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Office of Food Security and Emergency Preparedness, told conference attendees.
Although Maczka did not suggest any specific threat exists, she discussed how her office has studied the vulnerability of school cafeteria food to tampering. She also spoke of new federal actions designed to protect the food supply.
Concern about school food safety -- as well as general food supplies -- has been of keen interest to government officials since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to U.S. senators and members of the media.
Although it’s impossible to determine how many students could be threatened by a case of tampering, terrorists don’t necessarily have to cause many deaths to achieve their aims, says David Lineback, director of the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, a cooperative program of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the University of Maryland.
“It’s not the large number of deaths” that is most important to terrorists, he says. If an attack “can induce a lack of confidence, if it can raise concerns -- that can be a weapon, also.”
Lineback agrees with many security experts that there is no immediate cause for alarm. But food tampering is not unknown.
ýn 1984, members of a religious cult contaminated salad bars with Salmonella typhimurian in order to disrupt a local election, causing 751 people to become ill. In 2003, a supermarket employee poisoned 200 pounds of ground beef with an insecticide that sickened 111.
For local school boards, the important message is that government agencies are taking prudent precautions -- and local officials should stay abreast of developments, Lineback says.
“It’s the kind of thing you need to be aware of,” he says. “I don’t know that it should raise your concerns any higher, but it’s one of those things you need to keep in mind.”
The federal government has taken several measures in recent years. For example, the FDA issued final regulations last December requiring the food industry to keep good records on the manufacture, processing, packaging, and distribution of food. These rules will make it easier for health officials to track items that might have been contaminated.
More inspectors also have been hired to monitor food production and distribution, and the U.S. Agriculture Department and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now offer food security awareness training for school personnel.
USDA also distributed a food safety checklist to school lunch providers. “Given the reality of the threat that bioterrorism presents in our country today, [USDA] strongly urges schools to take precautions,” states A Biosecurity Checklist for School Foodservice Programs, published by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.
Among the USDA’s advice:
• develop a biosecurity management plan;
• restrict access to school food to authorized staff;
• perform staff background checks; and
• lock up stored food and monitor sensitive operations and equipment.
At AFDO, Administrative/ Special Projects Assistant Leigh Ann Stambaugh emphasizes that “the school lunch program is among the safest programs in the nation.”
But, she adds, “AFDO also believes that improvements can be made in every food safety and protection program, and all parties involved in food safety and food defense should continually maintain vigilance, evaluate processes and procedures, and make improvements whenever and wherever possible.”