How to keep French Fries Safe (in a world of saboteurs).

BRUCE ROHDE WORRIES about protecting America's favorite comfort foods from bioterrorism. As chairman, president, and CEO of ConAgra Foods, the country's largest food service manufacturer, Rohde oversees 250 plants in the United States that churn out everything from Slim Jims and Healthy Choice meals, to, the CEO estimates, one out of every two french fries consumed in the U.S.

When anthrax began showing up in America's mail, Rohde knew the $27 billion manufacturer would need to make changes to protect its employees and its food. After all, even without the threat posed by terrorists, food production is a risky operation fraught with health dangers posed by naturally occurring bacteria. What's more, ordinary substances like flour can be mistaken for material carrying anthrax spores. "We see powdery substances a lot in the food business," Rohde points out.

ConAgra is always on the look out for quality problems, but being on guard against intentional harm was something new.

Looking to the 1982 Tylenol tampering case for ideas, Rohde called together 40 of the company's scientists and asked them to put themselves in the minds of terrorists and to "look for cloak-and-dagger activities."

The first suggestion the scientists came up with was to stop mail going to all manufacturing plants. The group also reviewed the quality control measures at plants and made changes. At many factories, quality control is left to junior employees who are learning the way the production lines operate, and this was true at a number of ConAgra plants. To help spot oddities--and potential threats--that might go unnoticed by new recruits, ConAgra moved veteran workers to the quality-control posts. "This is no time for training wheels," warns Rohde.