Chaired by Daniel Faketty, Vice President, Loss Prevention for Harris Teeter, the Council will work closely with the NRF Investigator's Network and the NRF-FBI Retail Intelligence Network to communicate and network information on the various types of theft impacting retailers.

"While loss prevention is nothing new to the retail industry, the increase in organized crime has hit the industry particularly hard, especially the food industry," said NRF's President and CEO Tracy Mullin.

The NRF Food Industry Loss Prevention Council will meet three to four times a year. Currently one of the Council's projects is working toward the development of a national database that will allow retailers to report and share data related to various acts of retail crime, with a focus on organized retail theft activity, which has risen in recent months.

Some of the companies participating in the Council include Harris Teeter, K-Mart, Smart and Final, Raley's, Thrifty Foods, Winn Dixie, and others.

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet and independent stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 23 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2003 sales of $3.8 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.