Bioterrorists 'may target America's food supply

The US Congress is considering plans to hire hundreds of new food inspectors and lab technicians and allow the government to seize or recall tainted products and inspect food makers’ records, to deter new bioterror attacks.

After attacks from the air and the mail, officials fear America’s food supply could be next.

The government considers potential targets to be fruit and vegetables that people eat raw, and cattle that could be infected with fast-spreading foot-and-mouth disease.

The Agriculture Department has put vets on alert and wants more guards to protect its labs around the country that work with food pathogens.

‘‘Food security can no longer be separated from our national security,’’ Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois said.

Terrorists could poison a limited amount of food and still ‘‘create a general atmosphere of fear and anxiety without actually having to carry out indiscriminate civilian-oriented attacks,’’ Peter Chalk of the Rand Corp think tank recently told Congress.

Fresh produce may be the food most vulnerable to attack because it’s often eaten raw and is subject to little inspection.

The only known terrorist attack on US food occurred in the 1980s, when a cult in Oregon contaminated salad bars with salmonella bacteria.