Starbucks to install GE container security devices to secure containers carrying coffee beans

Starbucks makes two contributions to homeland security: First, its coffee keeps many homeland security types in government and industry awake and productive; second, the company has just announced that it was installing security devices in the containers shipping its coffee beans around the world. The company is doing so following a collaborative effort with DHS to test the technology. The company is installing high-tech sensors to detect tampering with its cargo containers filled with coffee beans shipped from Guatemala to Europe or the United States. The world’s largest coffee retailer had participated in a continuing study by DHS which found that these containers could be easily - and secretly - opened during shipment to add or remove items without the authorities or the company knowing anything about it.

The findings were part of a $75 million, three-year study, some of the results of which we reported a few days ago [HSDW 3/13/06]. Part of the DHS study, in which some 20,000 freight containers were tracked, involved tracing shipments of coffee beans from Guatemala’s Palin Dry Mill to Starbucks’ Green Bean plant in Washington state. Serious security problems were identified. As a result, Starbucks said yesterday it would install CommerceGuard sensors from General Electric on shipments of green coffee beans from Guatemala to detect whether cargo containers were opened during shipment. The sensors attach magnetically to the inside of containers and record any opening of the doors. GE said after a three-month test that CSD (container security device) accurately recorded each time a cargo container door was opened during shipment.

-read more about CommerceGuard at GE Web site