Counter Terror Gazette

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From Farm to Fork: Food Chain Security and Terrorism

Unintentional contamination of the food chain due to negligence, such as the fatal E.Coli outbreak in Germany in June 2011, can cause mass fatalities, severe disruption to food supplies and economies internationally, as well as wide spread panic.  But deliberate contamination of the food chain, an international production and supply system, by terrorists could be catastrophic.  So what measures are in place to protect the food supply chain from terrorist attacks?

The Threat

The only alleged ‘terrorist’ attacks against the food chain occurred in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. In the late 1970s, there were reported alleged incidents of Israeli citrus fruit on sale in Europe having been poisoned with liquid mercury injections.  A letter from a supposed Palestinian group calling itself the Arab Revolutionary Army (ARA) was posted from Germany to various European health departments, claiming responsibility and saying they wanted to damage the Israeli economy. However, although a small number of cases of poisoning, none of which were fatal, were confirmed, many turned out to be hoaxes or a panic-stricken public reporting symptoms of poisoning that were in reality either psychosomatic or attributable to other causes.  Leading Palestinian groups claimed no connection to the poisonings and furthermore claimed no knowledge of the ARA.  The Palestine Liberation Organisation said that the poisonings were an attempt to discredit them and that they would never sully their cause by poisoning innocent people. Investigations by European and Israeli security services failed to identify the group or the culprits.  The facts surrounding these incidents remain sparsely documented and unclear to this day.  The most likely theory espoused by investigators is that radical German groups (of which there were several during the 1970s) had been behind the threats and small number of actual poisonings, in a misguided show of support for the Palestinians.  One thing is certain; Israel’s citrus exports were severely affected during this period. There was a further hoax involving poisoned Israeli citrus fruit in Italy in 1988, which further harmed Israeli citrus exports.

A study by Israel’s Institute of Counter Terrorism (ICT) published in 2002, asked former Palestinian militants for their views on the use of bioterrorism.  All of those interviewed stated that such a tactic would either amount to national suicide, with the consequences of Israel’s full military and political wrath, or to significant loss of international public support.  Many of the militants stated that they simply did not need to engage in such unconventional warfare.

Following the 11^th September 2001 attacks, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published a report on the terrorist threat to food.  The report stated:

“Threats from terrorists, criminals and other anti-social groups who target the safety of the food supply are already a reality. During the past two decades, WHO Member States have expressed concern about the possibility that chemical and biological agents and radio-nuclear materials might deliberately be used to harm civilian populations. In recent months, the health ministries of several countries have increased their state of alert for intentional malevolent use of agents that may be spread through air, water or food.”

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