Significant Incident Preparedness and Response Staff

Food defense and emergency response planning are critical components to FSIS’ mission to protect public health. The Significant Incident Preparedness and Response Staff (SIPRS) is responsible for managing these programs. SIPRS develops, maintains, and coordinates all FSIS activities to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from significant incidents resulting from intentional and unintentional contamination and other significant non-routine incidents affecting meat, poultry, and processed egg products. The staff works with partner government agencies at all levels, private industry, and other organizations to establish and maintain the Agency's food defense infrastructure for prevention,  preparedness and emergency response from chemical, biological and radiological incidents. SIPRS provides technical advice and consultation, to Senior Leadership and stakeholders, on all threats affecting the food supply. 

Program Priorities

Preparedness
Being prepared for an incident, whether is be a hurricane or an intentional adulteration, can help a company protect its business, product, and employees and will create a
more resilient food supply.

Collaboration
FSIS works collaboratively with a diverse body of stakeholders.  Industry, academia and/or other government agencies join together to identify and share information about potential vulnerabilities in the food supply and distribution system. This better equips FSIS and its partners to take steps individually and collectively to protect public health.

Outreach and Education
FSIS has developed multiple tools and resources to help educate our regulated industry and in-commerce firms on how to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from any significant incident.