ISBN: 92 4 154584 4
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Executive summary
The malicious contamination of food for terrorist purposes is a real and current threat, and deliberate contamination of food at one location could have global public health implications. This document responds to increasing concern in Member States that chemical, biological or radionuclear agents might be used deliberately to harm civilian populations and that food might be a vehicle for disseminating such agents. The Fifty-fifth World Health Assembly (May 2002) also expressed serious concern about such threats and requested the Organization to provide tools and support to Member States to increase the capacity of national health systems to respond.
Outbreaks of both unintentional and deliberate foodborne diseases can be managed by the same mechanisms. Sensible precautions, coupled with strong surveillance and response capacity, constitute the most efficient and effective way of countering all such emergencies, including food terrorism. This document provides guidance to Member States for integrating consideration of deliberate acts of food sabotage into existing programmes for controlling the production of safe food. It also provides guidance on strengthening existing communicable disease control systems to ensure that surveillance, preparedness and response systems are sufficiently sensitive to meet the threat of any food safety emergency. Establishment and strengthening of such systems and programmes will both increase Member States’ capacity to reduce the increasing burden of foodborne illness and help them to address the threat of food terrorism. The activities undertaken by Member States must be proportional to the size of the threat, and resources must be allocated on a priority basis.
Prevention, although never completely effective, is the first line of defence. The key to preventing food terrorism is establishment and enhancement of existing food safety management programmes and implementation of reasonable security measures. Prevention is best achieved through a cooperative effort between government and industry, given that the primary means for minimizing food risks lie with the food industry. This document provides guidance for working with industry, and specific measures for consideration by the industry are provided.
Member States require alert, preparedness and response systems that are capable of minimizing any risks to public health from real or threatened food terrorism. This document provides policy advice on strengthening existing emergency alert and response systems by improving links with all the relevant agencies and with the food industry. This multi-stakeholder approach will strengthen disease outbreak surveillance, investigation capacity, preparedness planning, effective communication and response.
The role of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to provide advice on strengthening of national systems to respond to food terrorism. WHO is also in a unique position to coordinate existing international systems for public health disease surveillance and emergency response, which could be expanded to include considerations of food terrorism. This document complements other guides and advice developed by WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and other international agencies related to the threat of terrorist acts with chemical, biological or radionuclear agents.
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