Integrated Food Defense

The Integrated Food Defense & Emergency Response Cooperative Agreement Program (IFD&ER CAP) grant awards are designed to generate food defense tools and resources that are easily replicated and can complement, aid in the development of, and/or improve State, local, Tribal and territorial (SLTT) food defense programs through unique, innovative, and reproducible projects . The known overlap between food safety (unintentional contamination) and food defense (intentional contamination) is extensive. And the pools of resources available are vast and sometimes difficult to locate and implement. As the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) recognizes the evolution of the relationship between food safety and food defense, it is critical that these programs be integrated to the maximum extent possible in order to ensure the most efficient use of resources, as well as to optimize responses to incidents and events.