CPNI & BSI launch new PAS standard for Food & Drink Industry

This Publicly Available Specification (PAS) was developed by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) in collaboration with The British Standards Institution (BSI) in 2008. The original edition made use of preventative strategies within the World Health Organisation guidance on the Terrorist Threat to Food [1] which was revised in May 2008.

This new 2010 edition of PAS 96 has been reviewed by relevant stakeholders and amendments made to ensure its continued relevance and accuracy.

Businesses within the food and drink industry are well versed in the processes needed to make safe, wholesome, nutritious and palatable food available to customers. Removal of contamination from raw food sources, processing to make them consumable, and managing distribution to avoid recontamination and spoilage are at the heart of the modern food industry. Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) methodology has proved invaluable in controlling adventitious hazards which are based on the environmental and biological nature of food and which are essentially random in character.

The public and businesses within the food and drink sector now face a different threat – that of malicious attack, especially by ideologically motivated individuals and groups. This threat will manifest in a way which reflects the motivation and capability of these people. It will not follow the statistically random, and therefore predictable patterns of familiar ‘hazards’ so the established HACCP approach might not work without modification.

This document seeks to inform all those involved in the food and drink industry of the nature of this threat, to suggest ways of deterring attack and to recommend approaches that will mitigate the effect of an attack should it happen. The interpretation of the guidance depends on the individual judgement of business managers. Action taken by any business should be proportionate to the threat faced by that business and the document points to approaches to assess this threat.

Download PAS 56 for the Food and Drink Industry