Meat + Poultry - October 2007 - 141

SECURITY

need to be able to demonstrate they
have considered the situation and determined that checks are not necessary.
Next, companies must train employees on plant-security practices.
Processors should document these
procedures and conduct appropriate
training. Basic training should include
wearing proper garments and identification, questioning strangers, using
designated entry ways and following
plant rules. Employees should also be
trained to report suspicious activities
and any incidents of real or perceived
tampering. Records should be maintained of any security training. Incorporating security into the orientation
manual will ensure all new hires receive the appropriate training and that
it is documented.

Securing the premises
Plant buildings and grounds should be
designed to prohibit access to those who
don't belong. Ideally, a facility should
be surrounded by a fence designed to
prevent entry below them and topped
with barbed or razor wire to discourage
intruders from scaling them.
Employee parking should be outside
the fences. Employee access should be
through a locked door or gate accessed
using keycards or biometrics such as
thumbprints or eye scans.
Guards should be stationed at the
gates of a fenced facility and ensure vehicles entering have a reason to be there.
Guards should also check that deliveries
are scheduled and truckers entering the
grounds understand plant rules.
Plants are encouraged to require
loads to be sealed with tamper-evident,
numbered tags. Drivers should also be
provided with temporary identification
when entering the grounds.
Smaller plants unable to afford fencing or buying keycards and a computer
system should make sure employees enter and exit through a single door. And
all doors must be self-closing and lock
when they close. Employees must understand that doors must be kept closed
at all times, and that doors should never
be propped open.
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October 2007

Cameras are extremely useful for security and monitoring meat and poultry
processing operations. Focusing cameras on access points, loading docks
and any doors to the outside will ensure plant management can monitor
traffic in and out of the facility. Security cameras also allow management
to monitor loading operations and ensure these functions are progressing
as they should.
Having someone from a security firm
or designating an employee to monitor
video from the cameras is advised. When
people know they are being watched,
they tend to behave better. Security cameras also can be set up to record several
days or weeks of data allowing an operator to review what has happened in the
past. Cameras, along with good lighting
in parking lots, loading docks, over doors
and grounds, will discourage theft, vandalism and more serious crimes.
Food is perhaps at the greatest risk
during transport, so it is up to companies to establish programs to idintify
potential problems if they land on their
doorstep. It was noted earlier that processors should establish steps to mandate incoming vehicles be sealed. The
seal numbers on incoming loads should
be documented and match what was
written on the original bill of lading.
Establishing policies that state, "We
shall refuse all vans that are not sealed"
will generally bring truckers and trucking firms into line. When a load is delivered, it should also be inspected. Plants
need to create procedures and appropriate documentation to ensure all inbound loads are inspected. Guidelines
for acceptance and rejection need to be
included in these protocols. If anything
about a load is suspicious, it should be
rejected. For LTLs or even small shipments that may be delivered by overnight couriers, mandate that tamper-evident packaging is used.
Ideally, the first step toward improving security in a processing operation
would be to conduct a food-defense
audit. Companies can hire an auditing
firm, or the best bet is to work with a
company whose business is security.
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Another option is to conduct a
self-audit, a number of which can be
downloaded from the Web. The Food
and Drug Administration also offers
downloadable CARVER-Shock software
from its Web site to conduct such assessments. This may be accessed at www.
cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/vltcarv.html.
CARVER is an acronym for the following six attributes used to evaluate
the vulnerability of a facility:
* Criticality - measure of public health
and economic impacts of an attack;
* Accessibility - ability to physically access and egress from target;
* Recuperability - ability of system to
recover from an attack;
* Vulnerability - ease of accomplishing attack;
* Effect - amount of direct loss from
an attack as measured by loss in production; and
* Recognizability - ease of identifying target.
Companies can also download an
assessment form from the U.S. Dept.
of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. This assessment
form has been set up for meat processing, including slaughter operations, and the questions it includes
are an effective tool for assessing
potential weaknesses. Conducting a
risk assessment is essential. Processors need to ask themselves the following question, "Are we at risk from
an attack on our plant or incoming
ingredients?"
Before spending a pile of money on
security equipment and programs, meat
and poultry company operators should
first conduct a proper assessment of
gaps and potential needs.
Although a Cadillac system may provide the safest plant, something much
less elaborate and less expensive can
often be as effective.
Richard Stier is a consulting food scientist based
in Sonoma, Calif. with international experience in
food safety food plant sanitation, quality systems,
process optimization, GMP compliance, and food
microbiology.
We would like to hear from you - to comment on
this story or to request reprints, contact us by
e-mail at: meatpoultry@sosland.com.

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Meat + Poultry - October 2007

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