Food Defense Initiatives

National Security Memorandum on Strengthening the Security and Resilience of United States Food and Agriculture

The National Security Memorandum on Strengthening the Security and Resilience of United States Food and Agriculture is a plan for federal government agencies, working with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, along with the private sector, to continue their collaboration on ensuring the nation’s food and agricultural sectors are secure and resilient against domestic and global threats. These include intentional adulteration, catastrophic events, such as pandemics that impact critical infrastructure and essential workforce, consequences of climate change, and those in the cyber domain due to interconnected cyber-physical systems and intellectual property theft.

Vulnerability Assessments

FDA conducts vulnerability assessments (VA) on food systems to identify, quantify and prioritize (or rank) the vulnerabilities in a system.

Food and Agriculture Sector and other Related Activities

Protecting the critical infrastructure and key resources of the United States–from both deliberate terrorist attack and destructive natural events - is essential to the Nation's security, public health, safety and economic vitality. 

National Agriculture and Food Defense Strategy (NAFDS)

The National Agriculture and Food Defense Strategy (108) charts a direction for how the federal agencies, in cooperation with SLTT governments and private sector partners, protect the nation’s food supply against intentional adulteration.

Food Defense Field Assignments

Food Defense related FDA field activities designed as a proactive effort to prepare for the protection of food during special security events.

• Special Event Food Defense Assignment (SEFDA) Report
  March 2013
• Special Event Food Defense Assignment (SEFDA) Report
  September 2008
• Protein Surveillance Assignment (PSA) Summary Report
  June 2008
• Food Defense Surveillance Assignment (FDSA) Summary Report
  November 2007
• Summary Report: FDA Security Surveillance Assignment; October - November 2004
  December 2005

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Other Related Resources

• Food Defense Training & Education

• Food Defense Tools

• Economically Motivated Adulteration (Food Fraud)

• Prior Notice of Imported Foods

• International Cooperation on Food Safety

• Food Emergency Response Network (FERN)

Contact Us

For general food defense information, please email fooddefense@fda.hhs.gov