Food biosecurity in the United States

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The events of 11 September 2001 highlighted the vulnerability of US citizens and the US society in general to terrorist attacks. Since then, numerous governmental agencies and scientific bodies have emphasised the need to enhance the biosecurity of the US food supply. Food biosecurity is the prevention of intentional contamination of food with hazardous biological agents through tampering or other malicious, criminal or terrorist actions or threats. As part of the nation?s response to this issue, Congress passed the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Response Act of 2002. Title III of the Bioterrorism Act includes a number of provisions designed to improve the food safety efforts of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including new authority to protect the food supply against terrorist acts and other threats.