Food for thought: The use of hazard and critical control point analysis to assess vulnerability of food to terrorist attack in deployment locations

As part of a screening study, a literature review, personal interviews, and field work at several deployment locations, we examined the historical use of biological warfare agents and the vulnerability of food at military deployment locations to bioterrorist attack. The results of our experience suggest the following: historically, food has occasionally been used as a weapon by individuals; a benchmark procedure already exists to evaluate and ensure the safety of foods procured and used by the U.S. federal government, and food sources at the deployment locations examined are vulnerable to terrorist attack as determined by a critical control point analysis. Recommendations to potentially decrease the vulnerability of the U.S. military food supply to intentional contamination are also provided.