Cuyahoga County Board of Health Food Protection unit received a $98,000 grant from FDA and Homeland Security to educate grocers about defense of food.
The managers at Marc's Grocery stores are no strangers to food safety practices, but now they're learning about how to defend the food on their shelves from potential terrorists.
Suzanne Krippel is in the Food Protection Unit at the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. It's her job to educate grocers, caterers and anyone else dealing with food service about the potential risks they face and how they can prevent them.
"Luckily it's not very common and our goal is for it never ever to happen but of course with recent events and happenings in other states with intentional contaminates, big business coming our way or big groups of people, we always worry about potential for home grown terrorism," Krippel said.
Mike Tomko is Marc's VP of the produce and deli division. He's grateful for the training and that competitive grocers worked together to come up with signage advising consumers of what they're doing and why.
"The public trusts us they trust us that the things that they buy at Marc's are safe and we have a commitment to making sure that it is," Tomko said.
Consumers are also being asked to stay vigilant. If they see someone acting suspicious or going into non-public areas, they're asked to notify store staff.