Food and drink sector must improve security

FMCG Security is calling on the food and drink industry to tighten up employee screening procedures to protect their operations from a potential enemy within,following intelligence sources identifying the FMCG sector as being at significant risk of a deliberate terrorist attack.

FMCG Security says it’s only a matter of time before a major attack is launched on the country’s food supply chain by a terrorist group or a lone wolf pursing a radicalised agenda, possibly through premeditated contamination, that could result in supply failure with catastrophic consequences both socially and economically. Because of its widespread delivery capabilities, the FMCG sector needs robust safeguards in place for all stakeholders, such as employment screening measures, to protect against rogue employees, the potential threat posed by pressure groups and/or ideologically motivated individuals. 

Whilst workers are a company’s most important asset, that person walking through the door every day could also be one of the biggest risks to food security if not rigorously vetted, and that goes for chief executive officers (CEO) as well as shop floor workers and retail staff.  

Increasingly stringent privacy and data security legislation has made employment screening a challenge. FMCG says that the burden is on the employer to conduct risk-based screening to ensure a secure and compliant work environment by verifying movements, backgrounds, and the right to work.

Embedding counter measures and instilling formidable layers of security is a small price to pay against premeditated contamination to damage the UK economy, amongst other serious consequences. It is estimated that it cost the Russians less than £2,000 to mount a mainland attack on the UK but the Skripal incident resulted in a £20 million clean-up bill, town centres closed, hospitals quarantined, transport and businesses affected, three people seriously ill and one fatality.  

Jeremy Praud, FMCG Academy chairman, said: “There have already been documented attempts to disrupt the UK’s food supply chain, the most notorious being the case of Munir Mohammed and Rowalda El-Hassan, the couple convicted in 2018 of preparing for terrorism in a plot that could have attacked Derby or poisoned supermarket food. Mohammed slipped under the radar by obtaining false EU documents which helped him secure work at Kerry Foods in Burton, a major manufacturer of ready meals where he cooked sauces for meals going to Tesco and Morrisons. Thorough vetting would have revealed he was a risk to the food supply. Kerry subsequently lost the Tesco contract so closed the plant with the loss of 900 jobs.

“Standard DBS checks only access eight per cent of available data. Our intelligence-led background checks access 78 per cent. The question is would you choose to make informed decisions based on understanding only eight per cent of the potential problem, or would you prefer to have access to 78 per cent of the data?"