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• inside and outside security,
• slaughter and processing security,
• storage security,
• shipping and receiving security,
• water and ice security, and
• mail-handling security.

• Protects public health and assets;
• Possibly reduces insurance premiums and freight rates;
• Increases public and customer confidence, including trading partners;
• Provides value-added component to product;
• Deters theft and tampering;
• Creates production and distribution efficiencies; and
• Maintains greater control over product through supply chain.

• Designate a person or team to develop, implement, manage, and update your Food Defense Plan.
• Train appropriate personnel in food defense.
• Conduct regular food defense drills.
• Keep details of food defense procedures secure.
• Include emergency contact information for local, State, and Federal Government homeland security authorities and public health officials in the food defense plan. (Find helpful information on State contacts at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/contactmap.html.)
  • Review and update this contact information regularly.
  • Designate plant personnel who will initiate contact with theseauthorities.
• Include procedures for responding to threats of product contamination in your plan.
• Include procedures for responding to actual incidents of productcontamination in your plan. (Find helpful information at: http://www.state.tn.us/agriculture/security/fsig.html.)
• Have procedures that will ensure that adulterated or potentiallyharmful products are not distributed in commerce.
• Have procedures in place for safe handling and disposal of contaminated products in accordance with your Federal or State environmental authorities.
• Encourage employees to report signs of possible product contamination, unknown or suspicious persons in the facility, or breaks in the food defense system.
• Include evacuation procedures in your plan. (Find helpful information at: http://www.osha.gov/dep/evacmatrix/index.html.)
• Have procedures in place that restrict access to your facility to only authorized personnel during an emergency.
• Have a documented recall plan in place that ensures the segregation and proper disposition of recalled products and update the plan regularly.

• Secure the facility grounds to prevent entry by unauthorized persons (e.g., locked fence, gate, or entry/exit door).
• Post "No Trespassing" signs at the facility's boundaries.
• Ensure that there is enough lighting outside the building to properly monitor the plant premises at night and in the early morning.
• Have self-locking doors and/or alarms in place on all emergency exits.
• Ensure the following are secured with locks, seals, or sensors when unattended (after hours/weekends) to prevent unauthorized entry:
  • outside doors and gates,
  • windows,
  • roof openings,
  • vent openings,
  • trailer (truck) bodies,
  • tanker truck hatches,
  • railcars, and
  • bulk storage tanks/silos.
• Use controlled-access procedures for people and/or vehicles entering the plant and/or parking in your lot, such as:
  • using controlled or guarded entrance,
  • identifying employee vehicles with placards, decals, or some other form of visual identification, and
  • identifying visitor/guest vehicles using placards, decals, or some other form of visual identification.

• Install an emergency lighting system in the facility.
• If using security cameras in your facility, monitor them regularly.
• Use an emergency alert system and test it regularly.
  • Clearly mark locations of controls for emergency alert systems.
• Clearly mark all restricted areas (i.e., areas where only authorizedemployees have access).
• Restrict visitors, guests, and other non-employees (e.g., contractors, sales people, and truck drivers) to non-product areas unless accompanied by an authorized employee.
• Have available up-to-date copies of facility layout/blueprints for local law enforcement, including the fire department.
  • Require county records office to notify you when a copy of your blueprints are requested.
• Have procedures in place and periodically check maintenance closets, toilets, personal lockers, and storage areas for suspicious packages.
• Regularly take inventory of keys to secured/sensitive areas of thefacility.
• Ensure that ventilation systems are constructed in a manner thatprovides for immediate isolation of contaminated areas or rooms,if possible.
• Limit access to the controls (e.g., by locked door/gate or to designated employees) for the following systems in the facility:
  • heating, ventilation, and air conditioning,
  • propane gas,
  • water,
  • electricity,
  • disinfection systems, and
  • clean-in place systems or other centralized chemical systems.
• Limit access (e.g., by locked door, pass card, etc.) to the in-plantlaboratory facility to authorized employees only.
• Have procedures in place to control receipt of samples from other establishments.
• Have a procedure in place to receive and securely store laboratory reagents.
• Have a procedure in place to control and dispose of reagents.
• Password-protect access to the facility's computer systems. (Find helpful information at: http://www.umich.edu/~policies/pw-security.html.)
• Ensure that firewalls are built into the computer network.
• Use an up-to-date computer virus detection system.

• Limit access to product production/slaughter and holding-pen areas to facility employees and FSIS inspection personnel only.
• Monitor production lines that handle and transfer products, water, oil, or other ingredients to ensure integrity.
• Examine packaging of ingredients before use for evidence of tampering.
• Maintain records to allow easy trace-back of raw materials to suppliers.
• Maintain records to allow easy trace-forward of finished products to vendors.

• Monitor raw product storage areas, including cold and dry storage areas, for unauthorized personnel.
• Ensure controlled access to restricted non-meat ingredient storage areas.
• Maintain an access log for non-meat ingredient storage areas.
• Ensure controlled access to finished product storage areas.
• Ensure controlled access to external storage facilities.
• Regularly conduct security inspections of storage facilities, including temporary storage vehicles.
• Maintain records on facility security inspection results.
• Regularly check inventory of restricted ingredients (i.e., nitrites, etc.) against the actual use of such ingredients.
• Control product labels and packaging to prevent theft and misuse.
• Regularly check the inventory of finished products for unexplainedadditions and withdrawals from existing stock.
• Limit access to inside and outside storage areas for hazardous materials and chemicals (i.e., pesticides, industrial chemicals, cleaning materials, sanitizers, and disinfectants) to designated employees only.
• Maintain a current inventory of hazardous materials and chemicals.
  • Immediately investigate discrepancies in daily inventory of hazardous materials/chemicals.
• Ensure that storage areas for hazardous materials/chemicals areconstructed and safely vented in accordance with local building codes.
• Have a procedure in place to receive and securely store hazardous chemicals.
• Have a procedure in place to control disposition of hazardous chemicals.

• Keep trailers and tankers on the premises under lock and/or seal when not being loaded or unloaded.
• Closely monitor loading and unloading of vehicles transporting raw materials, finished products, or other materials used in food processing.
• Seal outgoing shipments with tamper-evident seals.
  • Document seal numbers on the shipping documents.
• Inspect tanker trucks and railcars to detect the presence of any material, solid or liquid, in tanks prior to loading liquid products.
  • Keep records of the inspections of tanker trucks and railcars.
  • Maintain chain-of-custody records for tanker trucks and railcars.
• Control access to loading docks to avoid unverified or unauthorized deliveries.
  • Require advance notification from suppliers (by phone, e-mail, or fax) for all incoming deliveries.
  • Immediately investigate suspicious alterations in shipping documents.
  • Check all deliveries against the roster of scheduled deliveries.
  • Hold unscheduled deliveries outside facility premises pending verification.
• Require prior notice if off-hour delivery is accepted, and ensure that an authorized person is present to verify and receive the delivery.
• Check less-than-truckload (LTL) or partial-load shipments for content and evidence of tampering.
• Require incoming shipments of raw products, ingredients, and finished products to be sealed with tamper-evident or numbered seals (and documented in the shipping documents). Verify the seals prior to entry.
• At the receiving dock, check incoming shipments of raw products, ingredients, and finished products for evidence of tampering.
• Notify the FSIS Public Health Veterinarian immediately if you receive animals with unusual behavior or symptoms.
• Protect feed and drinking water supplies for live animals from possible intentional contamination.
• When selecting transportation companies and suppliers, consider the company's ability to safeguard the security of the product/animals being shipped.
  • Transportation companies should perform background checks on drivers and other employees who have access to product/animals.
  • Ingredient suppliers should take steps to strengthen food defense in their facilities and during transport.
• Examine all returned goods at a separate designated area in the facility for evidence of possible tampering before salvage or use in rework.
  • Maintain records of returned goods used in rework.
  • Follow the procedures outlined in FSIS Directive 9010.1 for return of U.S. exported products. (Find helpful information at: http://fsis.usda.gov/ oppde/rdad/fsisdirectives/ 9010-1.pdf.)

• Restrict access to water wells (e.g., by locked door/gate or limiting access to designated employees).
• Restrict access to ice-making equipment and storage facilities.
• Restrict access to storage tanks for potable water and to water reuse systems.
• Inspect potable and non-potable water lines for possible tampering (i.e., visual inspection for physical integrity of infrastructure,connection to potable lines, etc.).
• Make arrangements with local health officials to ensure that theywill immediately notify the plant if the potability of the public water supply is compromised.

• Conduct mail-handling activity in a separate room or facility that is away from in-plant food production/processing operations.
• Train mail handlers to recognize and handle suspicious pieces of mail using U.S. Postal Service guidelines. (Helpful information is provided at http://www.usps.com/news/ 2001/press/serviceupdates.htm).

• Conduct background checks¹ on all employees and contractors (both permanent and seasonal) who will be working in sensitive operations (e.g., grinding area).
• Train all facility employees on security procedures as part of their orientation training.²
• Identify employees, visitors, and contractors (including construction workers, cleaning crews, and truck drivers) in some manner (e.g., ID badges, colored garb, etc.), at all times while on the premises.
• Control access by employees and contractors entering the facility during both working hours and non-working hours (e.g., coded doors, receptionist on duty, swipe cards, etc.).
• Limit temporary employees and contractors (including construction workers, cleaning crews, and truck drivers) to areas of the plant relevant to their work.
• Use a system to identify personnel by their specific functions/assignments/departments (e.g., corresponding colored uniforms or hair covers).
• Prohibit employees from removing company-provided or protective gear from the premises that could be used to gain unauthorized entry into the facility.
• Maintain an updated shift roster for each shift (i.e., who is absent, who the replacements are, and when new employees are being integrated into the workforce).
• Do not allow personal items into the production area.
• Restrict items that employees and visitors can bring into the facility, and provide a list of prohibited items (e.g., cameras).