US Department of Agriculture conducting five food defense exercises through 2006

The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will conduct five critical food defense exercises this year. The first exercise is currently taking place in Alameda, Calif. (January 18 and 19) and further exercises will be conducted in Raleigh, N.C., March 22-23; Chicago, Ill., May 17-18; Minneapolis, Minn., July 19-20; and Albany, N.Y., Sept. 20-21. FSIS will eventually conduct similar exercises in all 15 FSIS regional district offices.

These exercises are designed to practice reporting a non-routine incident while coordinating with all levels of government, non-governmental agencies and the private sector in an incident command system structure. They will challenge all participants to collaborate more closely and become better prepared to keep the food supply safe from disease, terrorism, natural disasters and other crises.

•Date: 19th Jan 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
Rate this article or make a comment - click here