Emergency Response Planning

For more than a decade, the food industry has been challenged to develop food defense plans to prevent intentional contamination. This challenge has now become the law, thanks to new requirements in the Food Safety Modernization Act. Companies are focusing their efforts to address food defense requirements.

One often overlooked aspect of a food defense program is emergency response planning. It may not fall in with typical food defense requirements, but it is a very important element of a food company’s overall security and safety programs. How does your company address emergency response planning? Are you confident that your emergency response plan would be effective in an actual emergency situation? How would your employees react if there was a fire, an active shooter, a phoned-in bomb threat, a severe weather threat, a chemical or ammonia release, or any other emergency situation? Most companies have basic emergency response plans to cover a fire or severe weather situations, but when was the last time you conducted a mock evacuation scenario for an active shooter, bomb threat, or chemical release?

The most important element for any type of emergency is to have a plan that is practiced regularly. Every food facility should conduct an assessment to determine the type of emergencies they may face. This assessment can be conducted by trained professionals within the organization or by outside professionals. Once the types of emergencies are determined, it is important to establish a basic plan, determine a course of action, and practice the response.

Most companies start with a basic emergency response plan to cover events such as fire and severe weather, each of which requires a different response. Most fires will require a partial or full evacuation, while many severe weather conditions require shelter in-place. The facility should determine the capabilities of the organization and of the community’s first responders.
 

Create a Plan

Consider the following when creating an emergency response plan for your food facility. These will help you evaluate your program to determine if it is capable of addressing a variety of emergency situations.

• Who is authorized and responsible for alerting employees of a possible emergency?
• How will employees be alerted?
• Will the alert be given through an alarm, intercom, air horns or bull horns, etc.?
• How will employees be alerted in case of a power failure?
• How do employees know what type of emergency to which they are responding?
• Once employees are alerted of the emergency, where should they take cover?
• If employees need to evacuate the building, where do they meet to be accounted for?
• How will employees be accounted for once they reach these points?
• Are emergency routes clearly defined and marked within the facility?
• Are meeting points within and outside of the building clearly defined and marked?
• Do emergency evacuation routes impede first responders traveling along driveways or roads to the facility?
• Have floor wardens been established to ensure their areas have been evacuated?
• Who is responsible for accounting for employees, visitors, contractors, etc.?
• Who is responsible for relaying information about missing employees?

Test the Plan

Once the basics have been considered and a plan developed, the systems should be tested. It may be best to announce when the first test will be conducted to have a controlled environment. Consider inviting local first responders to participate in the test to evaluate and provide recommendations.Once the first test is conducted, future tests should be unannounced to determine how well the plan will function and how employees and visitors will respond.

After basic emergency response plans are put into place, other emergencies such as bomb threats, active shooters, chemical releases should be evaluated and the plan adjusted to handle these. There are good resources available from government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, etc. to help businesses prepare for such situations.

In the event of a bomb threat, if the decision is made to evacuate the building, employees should try to take their immediate personal belongings such as purses, brief cases, backpacks, etc. with them. This will reduce the number of items a bomb-threat response team will need to evaluate in the search. Employees also should unlock their personal areas such as offices, desk drawers, filings cabinets, etc. This will allow the bomb-threat response team to inspect possible areas where a bomb could have been placed. It is also wise to partner with a neighboring business or community center to allow employees to gather off-site rather than on company property where a bomb or other hazard could be placed.

In the event of an active-shooter situation, employees should be immediately alerted about the type of emergency. It is critical to determine how this alert will be made and ensure that employees understand the specific code or signal. In these situations, employees should evacuate if their route is clear. During this evacuation, the primary concern is to get out of harm’s way. Employees should not stop to gather personal belongings and should get to an area that is well away from the active shooter, which may be to a designated point off company property. If an employee is not able to evacuate safely, he or she should understand how to shelter in-place to minimize being targeted by the active shooter. At a minimum, doors should be closed and secured, lights turned out, and cell phones turned to silent. Employees who cannot evacuate safely should hide behind large objects.

These are a few examples of the various types of emergencies for which a company may need to prepare. No company can prepare for every type of emergency it may encounter, but all companies should have a plan in place and practice that plan regularly so employees feel confident about their response and actions.

The author is Global Innovation Manager, Food Safety Services Innovation.