The Australian newspaper said on Monday that it had seen a classified document produced by the government-funded Food Chain Infrastructure Assurance Advisory Group, which has spent the last two years assessing food security in Australia.

It found that the sector could be at risk owing to its limited ability to identify unconventional contaminants, said the paper.

The chair of the advisory group, the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) chief executive Dick Wells, could not be reached to confirm the newspaper report. However in a AFGC statement, Wells said that the study had showed up some areas for concern.

"We found that although Australia has a comprehensive food quality and safety system we were able to find some areas where the changed security situation justifies further action," he said.

The AFGC director told The Australian that industry needed to "broaden our capability and capacity to analyze unconventional contaminants".

Heightened terrorist activity in recent years has raised fears about attacks via the food chain. The US has responded with its bioterrorism act in 2002, which is designed to tighten controls on all foods as well as ingredients imported into the country.

The Australian report suggested that fresh produce in particular would be potential targets of terrorism because of the damage that would be caused to the country's export market.

The Australian food and grocery sector employs more than 200,000 people and contributes 2.5 per cent to GDP. Around $24 billion worth of the economy relies in some way on food exports.

A 'National Food Chain Safety and Security Strategy' was launched in response to the report's findings in Adelaide on Monday.

Federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock said the proposed initiatives were "smart and achievable, and are built on good business sense".

Little further detail could be obtained by AP-Foodtechnology but Wells told the paper that the group also had concerns about the security of food at large manufacturers. One of the major points of the plan was for industry to report suspicious behaviour, much as the public were being urged to do with the terrorism hotline.