Food defense KPI in the business processes of the food supply chain

Given that globalization is constantly spreading, supply chains are becoming more complex and vulnerable. Managing the security of supply chains is becoming a regular part of business management practices. Threats to supply chains include theft, terrorism, and patent violations. Food and water supply sources are an attractive target for terrorist attacks, which makes Food Defense for the protection of food supply chains a huge priority. Although a business process approach is widely adopted in the Food Supply Chain (FSC) context it is not very well developed in the literature about Food Defense. The development of alternatives to build a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to measure Food Defense in business processes has not been part of the studies that follow this approach. This article proposes a procedure to build a Food Defense KPI to establish how efficient business processes are in preventing food terrorism. The practical validation of the proposed procedure was done in a food company in El Bajio, Mexico. The results support the possibility of the successful application of the Food Defense KPI.