Congressional auditors in the US have said the country’s food supply is vulnerable to attack partly because the government cannot ensure the security of processing plants.
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The report was issued by the General Accounting Office yesterday [Tuesday], while the US Department of Agriculture has also warned food companies, retailers and farmers to increase security due to the heightened security alert, reported the Associated Press.
GAO said the USDA and FDA could lower the risk of an attack on the nation’s food supply if food companies were required to provide detailed security plans.
Currently, food companies submit security information on a voluntary basis.
“Without the ability to require food processing facilities to provide information on their security measures, these federal agencies cannot fully assess industry’s efforts to prevent or reduce the vulnerability of the nation’s food supply to deliberate contamination,” said the report by GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, as quoted by AP.
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By GlobalDataSome manufacturers, however, argue that sharing security information would make companies more susceptible to terrorist attacks because security plans would be readily available.
