Food Emergency Response Network (FERN)
Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) : "The Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) integrates the nation's food-testing laboratories at the local, state, and federal levels into a network that is able to respond to emergencies involving biological, chemical, or radiological contamination of food. The FERN structure is organized to ensure federal and state inter-agency participation and cooperation in the formation, development, and operation of the network. The FERN plays a number of critical roles related to food security and food defense. These include: (1) Prevention. FERN provides a national surveillance program that will offer early means of detecting threat agents in the American food supply; (2) Preparedness. FERN prepares the nation's laboratories to be able to respond to foodrelated emergencies; (3) Response. FERN offers significant surge capacity that will strengthen the nation's response towards widespread complex emergencies, intentional or inadvertent related to agents in food; and (4) Recovery. The FERN network of laboratories enhances the ability of the country to restore confidence in the food supply following a threat or an actual emergency targeting the nation's food supply". (FERN Website, 2008)
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