Preventing Intentional Food Contamination

Abstract

In the age of preparedness, public health agencies are concerned with intentional acts of food contamination in restaurants, in addition to food safety. Food safety consists of applying standard norms of practice and infrastructure, which, if violated, cause food-borne illness. In contrast, food defense requires an institutionalized mindset of informed alertness to unusual variations from the norms, combined with preemptive practices best suited to each restaurant. Therefore, while food safety lends itself to regulation to ensure standard practices, food defense is best served by advisory guidelines for autonomous application, preserving the restaurant industry's core values of hospitality and customer service. To address this challenge, public health agencies need survey tools that can yield action-relevant data on the knowledge and practice gaps in food defense preparedness and on educational messages and support services to be developed for maximum impact potential. This article presents a mail survey instrument, developed using qualitative research to ensure content and face validity. Instrument development involved drafting the survey on the basis of expert consultations, validating its content by using focus groups (representing all restaurant categories and geographic regions), and ensuring face validity through cognitive interviews. The resulting survey remains sensitive to the hospitality industry while encompassing all vulnerable points.

Consumer Awareness of Food Defense Measures at Food Delivery Service Providers and Food Manufacturers: Web-Based Consumer Survey Study

“…In light of recent incidents of intentional contamination of food with foreign substances, food manufacturing companies must implement food defense measures [10,[13][14][15]18]. In addition to food manufacturing companies, businesses that serve food directly to consumers, such as restaurants and stores, are likely to be targets of intentional contamination by foreign substances.…”

“…Therefore, food-related companies and businesses must implement not only food hygiene measures but also food defense measures to ensure food safety. Food defense refers to practicing "safety management to protect against attacks on food, such as intentional contamination of food with foreign substances or contaminants" [13][14][15].…”

Consumer Willingness to Pay for Food Defense and Food Hygiene in Japan: Cross-Sectional Study

“…In addition to food hygiene measures, food defense measures are becoming more common to ensure food safety [10][11][12][13]. Food hygiene measures involve the monitoring of food and beverages to prevent foodborne health hazards.…”

“…In other words, the prevention of food poisoning enables maintaining a safe food supply chain while avoiding food poisoning. By contrast, food defense is a means to prevent health hazards caused by the intentional contamination of food and beverages with foreign substances [ 10 , 12 , 13 ]. Contamination in the food defense context is not accidental, such as that caused by human error, but rather involves incidents in which food or beverages are intentionally contaminated by foreign substances with malicious intent.…”