Our food defence training has been developed by leading food industry experts to equip you with the most current food industry knowledge. It introduces the application of food defence methodologies to assess and manage generic and specific threats for the development of a food defence plan. This course provides efficient strategies for identifying and minimizing risks as well as mitigating potential threats. The aims are to assure the authenticity of food by minimizing the chance of an attack by performing a threat assessment of your organization, operation, supply chain, process, and products. Using risk assessment techniques, you’ll identify where controls and mitigation strategies may be required to minimize and mitigate an ‘attack’.

More recently, proactive action has been increasingly applied to the food industry, in the context of food safety incidents such as the horse-meat scandal and the Italian olive oil fraud. To protect against such deeply damaging events, emergency preparedness is necessary for proactive action. In response, HACCP has been introduced to manage food safety by identifying potential hazards and establishing preventive measures. But to better anticipate emerging threats and protect supply chain integrity before a crisis occurs, TACCP was introduced alongside HACCP by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to identify potential contamination opportunities and potential vulnerabilities (or points) through a risk assessment that can be addressed with effective controls.

TACCP and VACCP work alongside HACCP. TACCP and VACCP focus on protecting against acts of intentional contamination, which HACCP does not address. As far as FSMA is concerned, these tools can be used to satisfy requirements related to food defence and intentional adulteration.

The VACCP method (Vulnerability Assessment and Critical Control Points) is a way of preventing food fraud. It widens the scope to include systematic prevention of any potential adulteration of food, whether intentional or not, by identifying the vulnerable points in a supply chain.

HACCP is an acronym that stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, a program designed to ensure food safety by minimizing the risk of food-borne illness. TACCP is an acronym that stands for Threat Assessment and Critical Control Points, which is a similar model used to thwart the intentional adulteration or counterfeiting of food.

Step 1 – Conduct a Food Defence Assessment. To protect your food processing plant, choose a person or team to be responsible for the security of your food.

Step 2 – Develop a Food Defence Plan. To ensure the security of your food, identify the aspects of your food processing plant that may be vulnerable and develop a plan accordingly.

Step 3 – Implement the Food Defence Plan. Once you've identified and developed a plan for defending your food production plant, put it into action.

A TACCP (Threat Analysis and Critical Control Point) assessment should be done at least annually. It is important to know that if there are any changes to processes in the business or if a new threat emerges, a revised assessment will be needed.

The FDA's Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs) apply to food companies during the production, transport, storage, and distribution of food products intended for human consumption. Under the FDA regulations for food companies, it is required that each company make sure that the food they handle is packaged and stored properly to prevent contamination.

Food Defence is the prevention of food adulteration within the manufacturing site. It is also referred to as Food Safety, and it is a key component of GFSI-benchmarked standards. This concept has been brought back into focus due to recent food safety incidents and is often confused with Food Fraud.

The Food and Drug Administration has identified four key vulnerabilities within the food system: bulk liquid receiving and loading, liquid storage and handling, secondary ingredient handling, and mixing or similar activities. Knowledge of these vulnerabilities can direct action plans. If you see the FDA's key activities at work in your industry, you may want to consider incorporating them into your business processes.

It should include a vulnerability assessment for the facility in question and a plan for controlling access. Because the value of the science conducted at the facility may be greater than the value of its physical assets, science-based security precautions may be more important than traditional security measures.

Several methods can be used to conduct a food defence threat assessment, one of which is the KAT method. Here are the steps involved in this method:

1.Coating, Mixing, Grinding, and Rework

2.Ingredient staging, preparation, and addition

3.Liquid receiving and loading

4.Lastly, liquid storage, handling, and surge tanks

The aforementioned activities represent common high-risk processes within a food facility.