U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and Honduran Ministers Meet on Food Safety

March 28, 2008 – From left to right: The Honorable Héctor Hernández Amador, Honduran Minister of Agriculture and Livestock; the Honorable Michael O. Leavitt, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Honorable Elsa Palou García, M.D., Honduran Minister of Health; and the Honorable Fredis Alonso Cerrato, Honduran Minister of Commerce and Industry. (Photo credit: Lourdes Antezana, HHS)

March 28, 2008 – The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Honorable Mike Leavitt, yesterday received a delegation of Ministers from the Honduran Government to discuss the recent Import Alert placed on cantaloupes from a large Honduran grower and packer, Agropecuaria Montelíbano.  The Honorable Héctor Hernández Amador, Honduran Minister of Agriculture and Livestock; the Honorable Elsa Palou García, M.D., Honduran Minister of Health; and the Honorable Fredis Alonso Cerrato, Honduran Minister of Commerce and Industry, all joined the Honduran Ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Roberto Flores-Bermúdez, in the session with Secretary Leavitt.  HHS Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., and the Director of the HHS/FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Stephen Sundlof, D.V.M., Ph.D., accompanied the Secretary as well.

Following the meeting, the two Governments issued the following joint statement:

“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is working jointly with its counterparts in the Honduran Government and the Honduran grower and packer Agropecuaria Montelíbano to investigate the situation associated with an outbreak of Salmonella Litchfield illness in the United States.

The Food and Drug Administration within HHS has dispatched a team of scientific experts to inspect Agropecuaria Montelíbano and its processing and packing procedures.  The HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also providing technical and epidemiological expertise to assist HHS/FDA in this mission.

HHS is working expeditiously and in close coordination with regulators in the Honduran Government as a means to implement the necessary actions, if any, to help ensure that cantaloupes grown and shipped by Agropecuaria Montelíbano meet U.S. standards for food safety.

Both HHS and the Honduran Government express that it is in their best interest to protect human health, and to resume the normal flow of trade once the appropriate actions determine that products meet U.S. standards.

Finally, both parties express their willingness to discuss promptly and implement procedures to help further ensure the safety of food imported into the United States from Honduras, particularly cantaloupes.”

For more information:

• FDA Warns of Salmonella Risk with Cantaloupes from Agropecuaria Montelibano (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
• Food Protection Plan: An Integrated Strategy for Protecting the Nation's Food Supply (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
• U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and Honduran Ministers Meet on Food Safety

Last revised: March 31, 2008