The objective of this research conference was to provide research results in the areas of food protection and defense. (Atlanta, GA).
November 4, 2005
Presentation Papers
The following research was presented at the 1st Annual Food Protection and Defense Research Conference, which took place November 2-4, 2005 at the Marriott Atlanta Marquis in Atlanta, Ga. The papers presented here were compiled from transcipts and slides (where applicable). Please note that presentation slides appear at the end of the transcript.
Objective & Organization
The objective of this Research Conference was to provide research results in the areas of food protection and defense. The general session design was to have a keynote speaker for each session as an invited, external speaker of stature in the specific field with additional speakers for the session drawn from the National Center for Food Protection and Defense (University of Minnesota), the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense (Texas A&M University), Food Safety Research and Response Network (North Carolina State University), the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security (University of California-Davis), and other partner academic researchers centers. The keynote speaker provided an overview of research going on in the area, compared to most other speakers who presented a narrower scope of research results.
The Institute of Food Technologists would like to thank the above research and learning institutions, as well as the Research Conference Planning Committee.
Keynote Address: Contributions of a University-Based Homeland Security Program to Critical Infrastructure Protection
Melvin Bernstein, Ph.D., Department of Homeland Security
30 pp; 4.72 MB, PDF
Economic Analysis of Events and Response
The economic consequences of an attack on the food system have been generally described and are significant enough to have the food and agriculture sector identified as a critical infrastructure. Translating these general estimates into probabilistic estimates that will enable decisions on investment strategies to reduce the potential for an attack or reduce the consequences of an attack are efforts still in early development. Analysis of the economic impacts of consequence management, prevention strategies, and new local, state, federal and international policy options will be considered at the firm, local, regional and macro levels.
Moderator: Jean Kinsey, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Keynote Address: Economic Resilience in the Food and Agriculture Sector
Susan Offutt, Ph.D., Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
2 pp; 100 KB, PDF
The National Economic Impact of a Terrorist Event: Preliminary Estimates
Tomas Stinson, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
18 pp; 211 KB, PDF
Assessing the risk of Terrorism using Extreme Value Statistics
Hamid Mohtadi, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
36 pp; 492 KB, PDF
Optimal Public and Private Sector Investment in Mitigating Risks along the Food Logistic System
William Nganje, Ph.D., North Dakota State University
24 pp; 266 KB, PDF
Panel Discussion
Moderator: Bruce McCarl, Ph.D., Texas A&M University
Food Processing, Decontamination, and Disposal
Designing food production systems to reduce the potential for intentional contamination, render the contamination agent ineffective and allow for appropriate decontamination in the event of an intentional contamination poses new and significant challenges for food system operations. Designing food production operations so that intentional contamination is a sufficiently high hurdle that it is not an attractive target is a primary goal. Should contamination occur, however, modifying the processing conditions so that the agent would be ineffective is a desirable back-up strategy. Unfortunately, we must also plan for and develop processes and procedures to restore systems after contamination with highly toxic and infectious agents. These related research areas will be considered.
Moderator: Dane Bernard, Keystone Foods, LLC
Keynote Address: Using Risk Assessment to Drive Research for Contaminant Detection and Mitigation in Food Processing Facilities
Richard Ryan, Archer Daniels Midland Co.
23 pp; 694 KB, PDF
Defending the Farm: Challenging Conventional Wisdom
Mike Robach, Cargill, Inc.
38 pp; 2.4 MB, PDF
Carcass Disposal Options: A Multidisciplinary Perspective
Abbey Nutsch, Ph.D., Kansas State University
41 pp; 1.8 MB, PDF
Chemical Inactivation of Biological Agents
Bruce Cords, Ph.D., Ecolab, Inc.
33 pp; 720 KB, PDF
Thermal Resistance of Bacillus anthracis Spores and Surrogate
Tomas Montville, Ph.D., Rutgers University
33 pp; 720 KB, PDF
Modeling and Risk Assessment
Identification of risks and vulnerabilities in the food system is critical to making reasoned choices on where to invest in potential interventions and system changes to increase the safety and security of the food system. Modeling of potential vulnerabilities and the consequences of specific intervention and response approaches are critical components to such vulnerability and risk assessments. This session models will explore epidemiological, disease diagnostic, food system production and food system supply chain models. This importantly includes the economic, public health and overall system resiliency to potential events through both event specific and scalable generic models.
Moderator: Michael Ward, M.P.V.M., B.V.Sc., Ph.D., Texas A&M University
Keynote Address: Department of Homeland Security Food Defense Initiatives
Col. John Hoffman, Department of Homeland Security
Simulation Modeling as an Exotic Livestock Disease Disaster Planning Tool
Tim Carpenter, Ph.D., University of California-Davis
35 pp; 1.09 MB, PDF
Modeling Zoonoses to Identify Potential Vulnerabilities and Data Gaps: Rift Valley Fever in the U.S.
David Hartley, Ph.D., University of Maryland-Baltimore
13 pp; 638 KB, PDF
Applying Risk and Decision Analysis to Food and Animal Health and Security
Vicki Bier, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
35 pp; 526 KB, PDF
A Predictive Modeling and Decision Making Tool to Facilitate Government and Industry Response to an Intentional Contamination of the Food Supply
Andrew Jaine, Ph.D., BT Safety
16 pp; 2.87 MB, PDF
Education and Outreach
Equipping the current professionals in the food system with the expertise necessary to defend the food system and training the next generation of leaders in food protection and defense are critical considerations for the academic community. New strategies, formats and technologies for education and training will be explored alongside of new topics which go beyond traditional animal health and food safety to encompass the challenges presented by food system protection and defense.
Moderator: Edward Mather, DVM, Ph.D., Michigan State University
Keynote Address: Equipping and Educating the Next Generation of Leaders in Food Protection and Defense
David Acheson, M.D., Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration
40 pp; 6.58 MB, PDF
Creating a Skilled and Capable Homeland Security Education Workforce
Trent Wakenight, Michigan State University
25 pp; 353 KB, PDF
Interdisciplinary Model for Food Safety and Security for Educational Programming
Curtis Kastner, Ph.D., Kansas State University
40 pp; 848 KB, PDF
The Unique Marriage of Emergency Response, Supply Chain Management and Food Security
Edmund McGarrell, Ph.D., Michigan State University
17 pp; 144 KB, PDF
Web-based Distance Learning Techniques to Train Farm and Food Industry Personnel to Protect and Secure the Global Food Supply Chain
Paul DeVito, Ph.D., St. Joseph’s University
22 pp; 831 KB, PDF
Transportation and the Supply Chain
The food system, with movement of farm inputs, agricultural commodities processed foods and finished food delivery, is perhaps the most complicated supply chain in existence. As such, the supply chain in general, and the transportation system in particular, represent an area of significant concern when evaluating the safety and security of the food supply. Presentations will address current and best practices in supply chain management, the resiliency of the supply chain and the impact on the supply chain from an intentional attack.
Moderator: Alan Erera, Ph.D., Georgia Tech
Keynote Address: A Commercial Approach to Managing the Supply Chain
Frank Sims, Cargill, Inc.
10 pp; 600 KB, PDF
Providing Security to Food Transportation Systems without Compromising Productivity
Alan Erera, Ph.D., Georgia Tech
40 pp; 1.52 MB, PDF
Dimensioning a Secure Supply Chain
David Closs, Ph.D., M.B.A., Michigan State University
37 pp; 294 KB, PDF
Supply Chain Assessment, Compliance and Corrective Action: Application to Catastrophic Incident Planning and Response
O. Keith Helferich, Ph.D., M.B.A., GSC Mobile Solutions
20 pp; 1.05 MB PDF
Food Security Practices among Food Retailers, Foodservice Companies and Wholesalers: Indicators of Excellence
Jonathan Seltzer, University of Minnesota
17 pp; 136 KB, PDF
Detection and Diagnostics
Rapid detection of potential pathogens and toxins in the food system from pre farm inputs through final consumption represents a significant challenge due to the range of potential agents, the complex matrices in which they may be present and the environments where the testing needs to be conducted. Through this session the techniques and approaches for pathogen and toxic chemical detection in food, food product constituents, and food systems as well as clinical diagnostic assays for pre-harvest plant and animal pathogens will be explored. This will include sample acquisition, pre-analytical processing and new detection platform investigations.
Moderator: Bob Silver, Ph.D., P.S.L., New Mexico State University
Keynote Address: DNA Detection Strategies: Sequences, Signatures, and Significance
Thomas Cebula, Ph.D., Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration
3 pp; 995 KB, PDF
Power Point Presentation
LARGE FILE: 13.8 MB , PPT
The TIGER Biosensor: Rapid Broad Range Pathogen Detection in Diagnostics and Food Protection
Lawrence Blyn, Ph.D., Ibis Therapeutics
45 pp; 3.75 MB, PDF
Improved Diagnostic Tests for Avian Influenza Surveillance
Blanca Lupiani, Ph.D., Texas A&M University
36 pp; 2.83 MB, PDF
Expanding the Use of Validated Rapid Microbiological Methods to New Food Matrices
Willis Fedio, Ph.D., New Mexico State University
34 pp; 584 KB, PDF
Public Health and Response Coordination
The public health system’s capacity for food system illness has been built to deal with foodborne illness from accidental or naturally occurring contaminants; low level, sporadic contamination that results in localized and low total incidence of serious illness. Consequently, it primarily deals with specific patient support and post-event investigation to identify the cause of the illness in order to prevent future occurrences. With intentional contamination, we will explore how we can learn from the existing system and substantially improve it so that the loss of life and public health disruption are minimized in the event of a high level, broad scale contamination. Moderator: Don Schaffner, Ph.D., Rutgers University
Keynote Address: Public Health and Response Coordination: The State of the Art
Craig Hedberg, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
37 pp; 873 KB, PDF
Public Health Response and Coordination: Is it Good Enough?
Art Liang, M.D., M.P.H., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
23 pp; 230 KB, PDF
Responding to the Crisis: Does Anyone have a Roadmap?
Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Detection and Diagnostics continued
Moderator: Bryan White, Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Keynote Address: Finding the Right Playground and the Perfect Toy
Mary Torrence, D.V.M., Ph.D., CSREES, U.S. Department of Agriculture
31 pp; 779 KB, PDF
Aptamers: Do They Have a Place in Diagnostics and/or Therapeutics?
Srinand Sreevatsan, D.V.M., Ph.D., M.P.H., University of Minnesota
A Novel Approach for the Rapid Detection of Pathogens
Vivek Kapur, B.V.Sc., Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Organic Nanowires as Rapid Detection Platform for Food Protection
Evangelyn C. Alocilja, Ph.D., Michigan State University
Community Profiling of Commensal Bacteria
Bryan White, Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Risk Communication
The ultimate goal of an attack on the food system is not only the public health consequences or economic disruption itself, but the panic and terror that are created by the event and its aftermath. Risk communication before, during and after an event is thus a critical element to preparing the country to prevent, endure and recover from such attacks. This session will explore best, and worst, practices in risk communications in an interactive workshop to equip participants with a better understanding of the best approaches available today, and awareness of what is being done to further advance the field.
Moderator: Will Hueston, D.V.M., Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Interactive session, including Matthew Seeger, Ph.D., Wayne State University and Robert Gravani, Ph.D., Cornell University
Matthew Seeger Presentation
17 pp; 42 KB, PDF
Robert Gravani Presentation
16 pp; 2.72 MB, PDF