Reprint of “Decision support for risks managers in the case of deliberate food contamination: The dairy industry as an example”

Abstract

Dairy farms were identified, which can be included in a contingency plan set up to prevent or mitigate the consequences of deliberate contamination of a food supply chain. The deliberate introduction of a contamination into the supply chain of milk was simulated in a scenario where milk producers serve as the entry sources and consumers of milk represent the target to be affected by the contamination. It is shown that the entry sources have an impact on the damage caused, i.e. in terms of the number of consumers reached. A contingency plan is provided that contains a list of entry sources ranked according to their impact on the damage to consumers. To generate this list, a computer program was developed that simulates the impact of the contaminations on consumers via the trade of contaminated milk. Possible variations in the trade links between milk producers, dairies and consumers as well as between dairies are considered. It is investigated how these trade links alter the generated list of entry sources. 2The results indicate that, regardless of the actual milk trade flow, control measures should be introduced on 39% of the milk producers in order to minimize the damage. The identification of suitable entry sources may help risk managers to focus on these farms in a contingency plan that improves the sensitivity of control activities related to deliberate contamination.

CARVER+Shock method and its application in a catering company in Poland

“…Next, each node is evaluated on each of the seven CS elements (Van Alfen, 2014). The formula which is used in such a situation ( R i =C+A+R+V+E+R+Shock), allows determining the most critical nodes understood as specific points in the food supply chain where intentional contamination has the greatest potential to cause harm and maximum damage (Pinior et al , 2015). The critical node can be also defined as a process or activity in the farm-to-table chain during which the agent could be added, undetected, in effective quantities (Acheson, 2006).…”