Employees FIRST

Food Defense Awareness for front-line food industry workers

Employees FIRST is an FDA initiative that food industry managers can include in their ongoing employee food defense training programs. Employees FIRST educates front-line food industry workers from farm to table about the risk of intentional food contamination and the actions they can take to identify and reduce these risks.

Follow company food defense plan and procedures.
Inspect your work area and surrounding areas.
Recognize anything out of the ordinary.
Secure all ingredients, supplies, and finished product.
Tell management if you notice anything unusual or suspicious.

Employees FIRST Learning Objectives

• Increase food defense awareness;
• Define and explain the five parts of the Employees FIRST initiative.

Employees FIRST Tools

• Employees FIRST Poster - a 4-color poster that can be hung in work areas to reinforce the initiative
  • English Employees FIRST Poster
  • Chinese Employees FIRST Poster
  • French Employees FIRST Poster
  • Japanese Employees FIRST Poster
  • Korean Employees FIRST Poster
  • Spanish Employees FIRST Poster
  • Vietnamese Employees FIRST Poster
• Employees FIRST Videos (available in multiple languages)

Employees FIRST posters, videos and other Food Defense materials can also be obtained from the FDA's ePublication site.

Other Related Information

• FDA Reminds Industry of Best Practices to prevent tampering and intentional adulteration.
• Food Security Preventive Measures Guidance for Retail Food Stores and Food Service Establishments

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Contact Us

For general food defense information, please email fooddefense@fda.hhs.gov