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Contrived crisis
Safety test
A stronger food chain
Biosecurity begins on the farm
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Purdue's Envision Center, a high-tech visualization and telecommunications facility, helps faculty and students collaborate on highly technical projects requiring the exchange of complex information between remote locations. (Photo by David Umberger) |
It was a class project promising long hours, much research and a little intrigue. Rather than solve a problem, their assignment was to create one.
The food science graduate students were asked to pinpoint vulnerabilities in America's food-supply chain and plot how to “exploit” them.
So for months, the students studied annual reports and business flow charts. They graphed manufacturing, distribution and retail centers across the country. They looked at food-processing procedures, ingredients and recall practices. They even consulted terrorism experts and learned the specific symptoms caused by contact with deadly microbes and toxins.
In the end, 36 representatives of the food industry, from the Department of Food Science's Industrial Associates advisory board, tested the students' work in a food biosecurity simulation held last May at Purdue University. The computer-generated exercise pitted the day-to-day working knowledge of industry professionals against the students' high-stakes simulated model of a crisis situation.
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Food industry professionals participate in a foot biosecurity simulation at Purdue’s Envision Center. (Photo courtesy Department of Food Science)
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The participants were stationed inside Purdue's Envision Center, a high-tech visualization and telecommunications facility. With the use of next-generation computer technology, the “players” were able to view data on wall-sized, high-resolution computer monitors linked to telecommunications equipment.
Contrived crisis
At computer stations, they watched the scenario unfold through mock media reports. They could call up national health statistics, match local illness outbreaks to foods that were consumed and request testing of suspicious goods. They could also recall products and calculate the health and economic impacts of pulling goods from store shelves.
It was an intense exercise that pushed the professionals and caused them to rethink their biosecurity efforts.
“I know when the light bulb came on for me,” says Bob Hosfeld, senior manager in corporate food technology with the Kroger Food Co., Cincinnati. “Typically, when I troubleshoot problems, I try to figure out the cause based on what could go wrong with the system. In this exercise, it hit home when I realized we had to think outside the box and consider deliberate acts.”
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