Food supply ricin

Ricin as a potential biological threat agent has received much popular press. In 2003, suspects were arrested in London for making ricin from castor seed in their apartment (Risen and van Natta 2003). The popular press has speculated that if ricin were made, it could be used to contaminate food in military mess halls. All of these instances indicate that biological and chemical materials may be a potential terrorist weapon to compromise the safety of the military and civilian food supply or other vulnerable areas. Given the extreme toxicity of ricin, the relative ease with which it can be obtained, and the fact that references to its use have been discovered in terrorist haunts, the ability to accurately and precisely detect ricin is a critical need. 

The persistent chemical agents which could be used in a foodborne attack, aimed at poisoning human consumers, include the nerve agent VX, any of the mycotoxins—aflatoxin, T-2 toxin, nivalenol (see Appendix A for discussion of their toxicology)—and compounds such as ricin produced from the castor bean plant. Chapter 5 should be consulted for a full discussion on natural toxins. These chemicals, combined with the biotoxins listed above, could potentially be used in the food supply. This would not be an easy task since many of these agents are toxic to animals and thus might kill the host, preventing dissemination into the food distribution system. 

Several countries have stockpiled a limited number of toxins. Their use on the battlefield has been alleged (e.g., Laos, Kampuchea, and Afghanistan) but not documented to the extent that it is universally accepted. Toxins have been used for political assassinations (e.g., 1978 murder of Georgi Markov with ricin) and terrorists have threatened the use of toxins, usually through contamination of food or water supplies. 

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