"Food security is a shared responsibility of USDA and our many partners to prevent or respond to the contamination of food products and we continue to make these efforts a priority," said US agriculture secretary Mike Johanns.
"By applying the principles contained in these plans, federal and state inspected plants can increase their own preparedness planning while doing their part to protect America's food supply."
This issue of food safety has also been heightened by the spectre of bioterrorism. New legislation on both sides of the Atlantic means that tracing food from the field to the factory and then to the supermarket shelf has become a legal obligation, pushing the pressure right up the supply chain.
Compulsory traceability is seen as one means of ensuring supply safety and quickly identifying contaminated batches.
In addition, sectors such as the global livestock industry are desperate to install measures that would guarantee the safety of the food supply. Outbreaks of disease have resulted in export bans and collapsed markets.
Japan for example banned US beef and beef products after a single case of BSE in an 8-year-old cow imported into the United States from Canada was detected in December 2003, and is showing resistance to fully reopening its borders.
The USDA believes that security of meat, poultry and egg processing facilities can be enhanced through the implementation of risk-management techniques tailored to each establishment's needs. Food security plans are valuable technical and operational resources that can help plant operators identify various types of preventive steps to minimise the risk of food product tampering or other criminal actions.
The model food security plans are being issued in the form of guidance documents and are voluntary. However, the USDA is strongly encouraging all establishments operating under federal and state inspection programmes to develop plans to fit their particular needs, as each plant may be vulnerable.
The model plans are designed for meat and poultry slaughter facilities, meat and poultry processing plants, egg processing plants and import facilities, which are available on the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) website. The model plans are also intended to be used with other FSIS food security resources, such as food security guidelines and food security checklists that were developed over the past three years.
To assist the industry, especially small and very small establishments in developing food security plans, the FSIS will conduct a series of training workshops throughout the nation in May, June and July 2005. FSIS also expects to broadcast some of the workshops via the internet in order to include more plant operators.
The purpose of the workshops is to provide additional guidance about the development and implementation of food security plans for meat, poultry and egg processing facilities, import establishments and identification warehouses. Tools such as the Model Food Security Plans, FSIS Industry Self-Assessment Checklist for Food Security and FSIS Directive 5420.1, Revision 1 (Food Security Verification Procedures) will be addressed during the half-day meetings.
Ongoing growth in the global €3.2 trillion food production, processing, distribution and preparation industries has led to growing pressure on the food chain to minimise outbreaks of food borne diseases. In industrialised countries, the percentage of people suffering from foodborne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30 per cent.
In the US alone, sixty-one deaths and 73,000 illnesses - such as bloody diarrhoea and haemorrhagic colitis - are blamed on eating foods contaminated with E. coli each year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.