Meat + Poultry - March 2006 - 23

Plant security

plan. The April 2005 draft document
outlines several goals an effective
plan must address. These goals, and
the entire document, can be viewed at
www.fsis.usda.gov.
Help wanted
As of this past month, Masci was in
the process of hiring a full-time security manager to take over some of the
mounting plant security responsibilities at Gold Kist. "It's a coordinator/facilitator position, and the person will be
in charge of security at our plants, feed
mills, wastewater treatment operations,
in our truck shop and for live haul. It's
a big job and a critical one."
After posting the job opening on
the American Society for Industrial
Security's Web site and in other appropriate spots, the company received more than 300 resumes for
the job. Masci narrowed the field by
measuring each candidate's qualifications against a list of criteria that
included elements such as C.P.P. (certified protection professional) certification, degrees in criminal justice or
a similar college major, law-enforcement background and bilingual competence, among several others.
Gold Kist's new security manager
will be responsible for continuing
the security program Masci, who has
been with the company 23 years, instituted in 1999. "Ours is a risk-based
program, because in reality you can
only do so much. So we did a security risk-assessment audit back in '99,
and then contracted with an outside
security supplier to help us standardize our program." In the years since,
Masci has refined the program, adding
technology, training and new ideas as
he discovers them.
One source for new security information that has proven to be especially valuable was created by Masci
himself: the Food and Facility Security Seminar. The first seminar was
held in November 2002, and in 2005
the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association
took over the event. This year's event
is scheduled for April 12-13 at the
24

MEAT&POULTRY

March 2006

Food Security Principles
The F.S.I.S. draft plan contains five food security principles:
1. Clearly understand what needs to be protected. "It is important to
identify the most vulnerable components of an operation," F.S.I.S. advises.
"A vulnerability assessment, or food security assessment, can be used to accomplish this task, but it is also possible to apply common sense to identify
some of the most likely threats that a facility may encounter."
2. Apply the highest security to the most critical components. "Security measures, costs, practices and procedures should be appropriate and
proportionate to the criticality of the systems and to the severity, probably
and extent of the potential harm."
3. Employ a layered approach. "Consider establishing concentric rings of
protection, with facility access control as the outermost ring; a trained and
screened staff as the next ring; and processes and procedures designed to
minimize operational risks as the innermost ring."
4. Reduce risks to an acceptable level. "Elimination of all food security
risk is not possible, nor is it cost effective. ... At some point, the incremental
increase in security gained will not justify the associated costs. There is a
need to maintain balance between countermeasures and operational effectiveness."
5. Security must have strong management support. "This support establishes a focus on security within the highest levels of the organization.
Without such support, the effectiveness of a security program can fail when
pressured by production schedules and budget limitations. Roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined and authorized at a level commensurate with the criticality of the system components."

Sheraton Atlanta Hotel (For information and registration, go to: www.
poultryegg.org).
Food and plant security, he says, is
similar to food safety in one regard:
Among processors, it's a non compete
topic. "We're not competitors when it
comes to security. If I've got something
that another company can benefit from,
I'm going to share it. One day they
might have something that's going to
help me out.

www.MEATPOULTRY.com

"I think the industry is pretty much
on top of plant security. But we can't
afford not to be."
Steve Bjerklie is M&P's West Coast
correspondent, based in San Francisco.
He has worked as a journalist covering
the meat and poultry processing
industry for more than 25 years.
We would like to hear from you- your comments
and questions about this article are welcome.
E-mail the author at: meat&poultry@sosland.com

http://www.fsis.usda.gov http://www.poultryegg.org http://www.MEATPOULTRY.com

Meat + Poultry - March 2006

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