COVER STORY Food disruption – probably from a new type of terrorism – is on the horizon and bearing down fast, an American food protection and defence expert is warning. Dr Jennifer Van De Ligt from the Bill Marler do’ he said,” Marler says. “It’s morbid, but it takes the decision maker away from the ‘how much is this going to cost’ mentality to what is appropriate for customers and the company.” Brianne Kiner, unwitting poster child for the battle against E.coli, is now 34. “Brianne proved to be only the first of many young children I’ve seen sprawled in hospital beds, horribly bloated and discoloured, hooked up to kidney dialysis and life support machines, surrounded by doctors frustrated by a disease for which there is no known cure,” Marler says. “Many of these kids died. Brianne barely survived, and she will suffer after-effects from her E.coli poisoning for the rest of her life. I hope that suffering is eased somewhat by the $15.6 million settlement eventually paid by the company. Jack in the Box, co-defendants and insurers paid out over $125 million in compensation to victims. The costs to all the businesses involved were five times that. The game – for them – was over. And that’s fair.” DEFENDING YOUR LUNCH Brianne Kiner University of Minnesota says she has no idea why terrorist organisations have not yet attacked food supply chains, but recent intelligence has revealed they are waking up to the method. Contaminated food causes malnutrition, instability, rioting, disease and – most importantly for terrorists – fear. “Global food supplies are very complex,” she says. “When you are dealing with intelligent adversaries who know the systems and can find vulnerability, it’s very hard to detect and stop. Food is consumed by everybody, you can’t opt out, contamination is hard to detect and it’s hard to crack.” Van De Ligt says sabotage is of even more concern, with the recent 1080 scandal a perfect example. “Economically motivated adulteration is very difficult to detect,” she says. “This includes artificial enhancement with unapproved ingredients, dilution, substitution, counterfeit, theft for resale, intentional distribution with contaminated food and mislabelling.” Methanol was added to vodka in the Ukraine and sold less than half the price of authentic vodka due to price pressure from increased taxes on alcohol beverages and decreasing household incomes. The incident caused more than 150 illnesses and 50 deaths. The vodka methanol incident is an example of economically motivated adulteration having unforeseen public health consequences.
FT-Jul17-eMag-1
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