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The Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) integrates the nation's food-testing laboratories at the local, state, and federal levels into a network that is able to respond to emergencies involving biological, chemical, or radiological contamination of food. The FERN structure is organized to ensure federal and state inter-agency participation and cooperation in the formation, development, and operation of the network.

The FERN plays a number of critical roles related to food security and food defense. These include:

1. Prevention. FERN provides a national surveillance program that will offer early means of detecting threat agents in the American food supply;

2. Preparedness. FERN prepares the nation's laboratories to be able to respond to food-related emergencies;

3. Response. FERN offers significant surge capacity that will strengthen the nation's response towards widespread complex emergencies, intentional or inadvertent related to agents in food; and

4. Recovery. The FERN network of laboratories enhances the ability of the country to restore confidence in the food supply following a threat or an actual emergency targeting the nation's food supply.