Remarks prepared for delivery
by Bryce Quick, Deputy Administrator, Food Safety and Inspection
Service, at the FSIS Meat and Poultry Inspection Seminar for
International Government Officials, July 17, 2006, in Washington,
DC.
On behalf of all of agency employees, I want
to welcome you, and thank you for attending FSIS' Meat and Poultry
Inspection Seminar for International Government Officials.
This seminar has been offered each year for over fifteen years.
As hosts we look forward to this event, because while we are
sharing our policies and procedures with you, we learn about
the various ways your systems operate. It really is a joint
educational opportunity.
As you know, the major focus of the seminar is on the Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). While here, you
will be able to see how we implement HACCP and Pathogen Reduction
initiatives in the United States.
In addition, many other topics will be discussed over the next
several weeks, including an overview of the inspection regulations
and procedures enforced by FSIS to assure that meat, poultry
and egg products are produced, packaged and labeled in a way
that ensures a safe and wholesome product not only to U.S. consumers
but to consumers worldwide.
Throughout the sessions, your feedback and insight will be
very important as we discuss different issues. We have set the
program up so that officials from other USDA agencies also have
a chance to meet and talk with you. For example, one of our
speakers is from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS), an agency we work with on a daily basis. Our state
partners are also interested in your perspectives, and we have
also arranged a meeting with an industry representative — someone
who is required to follow our regulatory requirements.
I hope you will find the field trips where you will have an
opportunity to see a little bit of Virginia and Maryland to
be a highlight of this session. During these trips, you'll visit
a poultry plant, a livestock slaughter plant, a processing plant,
and a cold storage facility so you can see how our regulations
are implemented. These trips will hopefully spur more discussion
and we hope you will be willing to share your thoughts on these
real life examples of HACCP in the U.S.
Our field trips aren't all work though and we hope you will
enjoy exploring our nation's capital where you will have an
opportunity to visit the White House and Capitol (located a
couple of blocks from your hotel).
Getting back to the seminar itself, our major objectives are
to:
- give you a better understanding of how the U.S. inspection
system works;
- share information regarding alternative inspection systems;
and
- build lasting relationships that could help to avoid inspection
problems at our ports, and might enable us to consider harmonization
of inspection procedures in the future for all countries throughout
the world.
We are pleased to have more than 40 government officials here
who represent more than 25 countries. My hope is that when this
seminar is completed, you will feel this has been an excellent
opportunity to study the U.S. inspection system, share information,
and build long term relationships. More importantly, this provides
all of us a chance to learn from each other in how we can further
enhance food safety on a global scale.
I want to thank you again for coming and allowing us the opportunity
to learn from each other over the coming weeks. I know we will
all leave with a wealth of information that we can use in the
future.
Again, welcome. |