Статьи

Bioterrorism, what is it and how to protect yourself?

Members of the feed, food, food and agriculture sectors, as well as life support, have heard something about bioterrorism at least once. What is it? What can its causes and factors that increase the risk of its occurrence? And what should you do to protect yourself and your company from it?
Bioterrorism is a type of terrorism that harms humanity by using biological weapons with the use of microbes or microorganisms intended to harm human health or a living being.
The reasons for bioterrorism can be very different, we have highlighted only some of them.
- Ideological motive, anger at national, business or personal differences, the desire to change the culture;
- A desire for economic upheaval for their own benefit;
- We will also include here employee sabotage. For example, intentional harm from an offended employee aimed at causing reputational damage to the company.
- People seeking to harm another person (most often the cause of mental illness) ;
- Individuals in search of public fear (here the motives can be different - economic, political, and even mental);
- The desire to earn money (extortion);
- I will add one more option from myself. In my opinion it can be just human stupidity, when people (most often children) take part in it for fun without understanding all the consequences of such incidents.
This is a small list of reasons, we must also consider possible factors of bioterrorism. Factors as well as causes can be different, but no less important.
- The use of products with a short shelf life;
- The use of semi-finished products in production;
- The presence in the manufacturing process of stages of mixing of ingredients;
- Production in large batches;
- Use of bulk raw materials;
- Use of one ingredient in several types of products;
- Lack of personnel policies;
- Unrestricted access to the facility;
- Lack of protection of the company's personal data;
- Etc.
The consequences of the emergence of bioterrorism are quite large, they also need to be known and understood the full scale and seriousness, as well as understand their responsibility, so as not to face these very consequences:
- Sickness of people, injuries, death;
- Reputational damage to companies;
- Of course the financial losses in connection with the recall and withdrawal of products;
- Suspension of companies and, as a consequence, the loss of jobs by their staff.
All this can lead to really serious consequences. These consequences can affect not only a company or a group of people, but the country as a whole. It is impossible to accurately calculate the disorder that these consequences will cause, but it will certainly rage in the economic, political and social spheres.
So what can we do to prevent the occurrence and protect ourselves from bioterrorism?
In the case of food and feed safety, a HACCP plan is in place, the actions of which are aimed at analyzing risks and critical control points, the concept of the HACCP plan involves the systematic identification, assessment and management of hazards significantly affecting the safety of products.
Various international standards also help combat bioterrorism, which include both a HACCP plan and additional protection measures.
Regarding food protection from bioterrorism, there are special tools for developing a food protection plan - Food Defense.

- For example, TACCP (Threat Assessment Critical Control Point).
- There is the CARVER + Shock methodology (C-Criticality, A-Accessibility, R-Recuperability, V-Vulnerability, E-Effect, R-Recognizability).
- Criticality is a measure of the attack's impact on public health and the economy;
• Accessibility -Доступность - возможность физического доступа к цели и выхода из нее;
• Recuperability – Восстанавливаемость - способность системы восстанавливаться после атаки;
- Vulnerability - the ease of making an attack;
- Effect - Effect - The sum of the direct losses from an attack, as measured by production losses;
- Recognizability - the ease of identifying the target.

In addition, an additional attribute SHOCK - the cumulative impact of the attack on health, economy and psychology - is also evaluated.
By following the principles, rules, requirements and these methods everyone can more effectively build a defense against bioterrorism and protect not only themselves but the whole world. As responsible members of the food and feed chain and those who strive to create a safe and quality level of life in every corner of the world, we would like everyone to be aware and understand their importance in the structure of ensuring the integrity of the world. That's why we make sure that FSA ID participants are aware of all the tools to combat bioterrorism and apply them in their facilities.