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Center to assess threats, prevent food tampering

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI and a leading private food trade organization agreed Friday to form a center to assess threats and protect the nation's food supply from tampering, officials said.

The Food Industry Security and Analysis Center, or ISAC, will coordinate information sharing between the federal government and the food industry on threats to food as well as the food industry's physical assets and its computer infrastructure.

The center aims to merge information from the intelligence community, law enforcement, the Department of Defense and the private sector, said Ronald Dick, director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center.

The Food Marketing Institute, which signed the agreement with the FBI on Friday, will staff and operate the ISAC.

The center's alliance with the FBI will help the food industry better evaluate threats against the food supply as credible or hoaxes, said Tim Hammonds, the institute's president and CEO.

Dick said ISAC will help the government to quickly and effectively disseminate information about food threats and vulnerabilities.

ISAC will be the latest organization to serve as an intermediary between the government and private sector. Similar associations already share information and coordinate activities in the electric power, banking and finance, telecommunications and water industries.