The Real Cost of a Food Safety Breach
A breach that manipulates or erases monitoring records can put you out of FSMA compliance and turn safe product into suspect product, fast.
The average cost of a breach is not the only concern, as HACCP and the FSMA were designed to prevent hazards in process and product.
However, the modern hazard landscape must include data integrity, as an attacker altering a cook-step temperature, disabling an environmental sensor, or spoofing a lab result can lead to an undetected process deviation.
That’s not only a cyber incident; it’s a potential adulteration and a records problem under 21 CFR Part 117.
FSMA’s records provisions require that monitoring and verification records contain the actual values and observations, and when those “actuals” are corrupted, missing, or untrustworthy due to tampering, you can’t demonstrate control — setting up recalls and regulatory actions.
Author summary: Cyber breaches threaten food safety and compliance.
- HACCP and FSMA prevent hazards in process and product.
- Data integrity is crucial in the modern hazard landscape.
- Corrupted records can lead to recalls and regulatory actions.