FDA releases software to help industry protect food supply

Jun 26, 2007 (CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released a new software tool to make it easier and quicker for food industry facilities to assess their risk of attacks involving biological, chemical, or radiological weapons.

The software program, called CARVER+Shock, was released on Jun 15 and is available for download on the FDA's Web site, according to an FDA press release. The software was developed by the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) along with several collaborators, including Sandia National Laboratories, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Institute of Food Technologists, the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, state officials, and industry representatives.

"FDA's goal in developing the CARVER+Shock software is to maximize protection of the American food supply," said David Acheson, MD, the FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection, in the press release.

The software is designed for use by all components of the food industry, from growers to retailers. "CARVER" is an acronym representing risk-assessment attributes that have been adapted from the US military:

Criticality: How would an attack impact public health and the economy?
Accessibility: How easily could a terrorist access a target?
Recuperability: How well could a system recover from an attack?
Vulnerability: How easily could an attack be accomplished?
Effect: What measurable losses in production would stem from an attack?
Recognizability: How easily could a terrorist identify a target?

Also, the tool incorporates a seventh attribute, the psychological or "shock" effects of an attack, the FDA statement said. For example, the psychological impact might be greater if a large number of deaths resulted or if the target had special historical or cultural significance.

Before the CARVER+Shock software was released, food processors relied on face-to-face risk assessments with FDA and/or USDA representatives that typically took 2 to 3 days and required as many as 30 people to answer all the questions, Donald Kautter Jr., acting supervisor of the food defense oversight team at the FDA, said in an FDA consumer report on the new software.

"What we've done is taken that face-to-face interaction and put it into a software program so that the questions and discussion are posed by the computer," Kautter said in the report. "This will give more companies access to the tool."

The computerized assessment generally takes less than a day and requires the participation of a small team from the food facility, the FDA report said. The program takes employees through more than 100 questions about their facilities and processes to identify vulnerable areas and project what type of attack would be the greatest threat.

"CARVER helps industry think like an attacker so that it can identify any weak spots and put countermeasures into place," Kautter said.

The software itself doesn't pose a security risk because the questions don't reveal classified company information, Kautter said. However, he added that the assessment results should be considered sensitive information.

The new risk assessment tool is part of the FDA's broader food protection strategy and follows the 2006 launch of the ALERT initiative, which is designed to raise industry awareness of food defense and preparedness issues, the FDA said. The CARVER+Shock software builds on the awareness by allowing a more formal and detailed risk assessment.