FDA, USDA collaborate on bioterrorism risk evaluation tool for agriculture

Washington

-- The Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture collaborated on new set of tools designed to help food-animal producers mitigate risk of bioterrorism on their food production process.

The online tool, dubbed CARVER + Shock, was adapted from a system created by the military to "evaluate potential vulnerabilities in the supply chains of different food and food processes.

"This assessment tool helps the producer understand how someone intending to disrupt agriculture might think," says Stephen F. Sundlof, DVM, PhD, and director of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "Producers can easily identify weak spots in their operation and receive practical advice on countermeasures they can put in place," Sundlof says.

For more information go to www.fda.gov/Food/FoodDefense/Carver.