Page 44 - FoodFocusThailand No.142_January 2018

STRONG QC &
STRONG QC & QAQA
Food Defense

The preparation of entrepreneurs and those involved in the food business related to food
defense should cover all sectors which have related activities throughout the human food
chain, feedmeal and food packaging production. The key approach is to understand and
prioritize on the intentional contamination in the food business and consider all possible
causes of intentional food contamination as well as help find the prevention measure or
corrective measures and appropriate defense measures to the actual situation.

Food defense in Thailand by the Ministry of Public Health – the ministry after the person was allowed to enter to the control area of the
in collaboration of the United States has set up the Food Safety Operations organization.
Center in 2009, while the implementation plan has already been drawn 3. Detecting objects or suspicious objects in the organization -
out. Yet, for the preparation of food business operators in all sectors, they Materials bring into the area in various forms, such as parcels are needed
need to prepare to respond to the impact of intentional food harming in to be verified for allowing to bring into the site.
the food business and prepare to set up defense measure and surveillance 4. Control accessing process before getting into the computer
strategies to prevent suspicious situations which are risk of insecurity in systems of organization - In order to prevent unauthorized access to
food business. Regarding to this concern, the controlling system and the databases and unauthorized persons, the electronic database access
food defense are different from the safety management system such as control is required.
the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). To increase 5. Checking the suitability of employee working schedules. - This
understanding on the issue of intentional food harming, we need to will help the organization acknowledge on the working status of each
understand the impact and potential impact of intentional food contamination employee’s performance in each area, while can draw appropriate
which could occur. control measures and suitable working schedule for each person.
Considering on the current possible risk situation of intentional food 6. Checking personal stuffs who entry in the working area – This is
contamination that may occur at any time, such as deliberately violating the priority control measure which has been implemented in each
or ignoring on the stringent work regulations or imperfection of the organization for inspecting and controlling of prohibited substances into
workplace to screen or check workforces, and the defaulted to manage control areas.
the intentional food contamination in the food business. Therefore, we 7. Validation of documents from government agencies – The
need to have a food defense approach in order to control and prevent the guideline is important to verify the credibility of the persons who enter
intentional food harming in the food business. The following measures are to the site. In many organizations which have documentary check-up
as follows. may find the fake or expired documents issued by the government, so
we need to closely monitoring for accuracy and stringent.
Food Defense Guidelines for Food Business 8. Checking information about being attacked by adversary on the
The first stage – All management levels of the organization need to organization - Action requires a group of people who are understand
understand the impact of intentional food contamination in the food and have expertise to investigate on the situation that may be cause
business, and investigate the working environment so that they can assess intentional contamination. The organization needs to have knowledge
situations that may be considered as intentional food contamination. After and understand the situation in order to determine the appropriate food
that, they could investigate the causes and motivation of any persons that defense approach.
are suspected to create harm in the food business. To proceed on the 9. Facilities car parking and permit allocation policy - this will help
process, we may be necessary to rely on professional data for assessing inspect vehicles which are access to the premises. The outcome of the
the situation of each organization and then draw up an important database implementation of this control measures or defense measures of each
for drawing the system in the next step. organization at this stage need to be revised or allocate funds as needed
The second stage – Following the outcome from the first step, the to the organization to improve the work of the working group and
organization needs to consider appointing a working committee by selecting executives so that they could see a risk of intentional contamination.
a representative from the management level, while may require experts The fourth stage - Once the working group and experts have
to analyze the intentional contamination. This working group is responsible considered the appropriate control standards, it is necessary to
for reviewing data from the surveying process, as well as considers the communicate to the working taskforces and relevant taskforces so that
potential risk of suspected action at each stage along the working process they can recognize and understand the principles and rationale of the
in the organization to assess risk areas or detect any suspected actions. implementation measures. This is aimed to monitor suspected behavior
By doing so, this should be done by responsible working committee only. related to abusive, including ignorance and non-compliance to the
The third stage – To consider the controlling measure or food defense regulation which may result in intentional contamination in food business.
guidelines, which could be considered as follows: The fifth stage - The working panel and experts have set up
1. Assessing the suitability of building structures - The suitability of surveillance and monitoring systems to enforce the control measures.
security fences and gates is very important. Since this will affect the Monitoring measures should be established for inspecting the corrective
consideration for accessing to the site and control an entry of each person. standard. It may include the rehearsals the counter-attack measure for
Hence, if any organizations have good building structures and suitability suspected situation. All activities that occur at this stage require a
of security operations, it will have high effectiveness in controlling the site dedicated group of people so that they could enable to analyze the
area. Controlling entrance or exit through an opening in a fence or wall, suspected situation in an appropriate manner and close to the actual
the organization needs to check up the security equipment, controlling situation.
system, key system, and install the CCTV system, as well as monitor each The sixth stage - the working group and experts will present their
people as it can be useful information for investigating process in case of performance to the top management for consideration of their
any suspected actions. Moreover, the organization should prepare the performance and the appropriateness of the control measures, which
provision measure to prevent unauthorized access to the site. At present, the organization has applied.
many organizations have chosen to employ external security agency to As mentioned above, we will find that the food defense guidelines
monitor and screen outsiders, check and verify personal information before for food business is crucial, which can create broaden impact as well
accessing the site. In case of necessity, there may have a personal as to all relevant people. This issue needs to be closely monitored in
background screening for any person before an allowance to the site. every division of each organization. We can say that the management
2. Criminal investigation of suspected persons – Checking the database approach and the author’s view have both foreseen that essential for
of focused people in the organization, such as employees, contractors, or food entrepreneurs to concern on this issue, which should not less than
other persons, who need to be monitored. The responsible agency need concern on food quality management, as well as about the food fraud.
to consider investigating on the criminal history provided by the Royal Thai All of those issues will affect the food business.
Police so that that information will be accessed for any risk that may occur

42 FOOD FOCUS THAILAND JAN 2018