U.S. Food and Drug Administration
U.S. Department of Agriculture
March 3, 2000

Transmittal Letter to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Ad Hoc Group on Food Safety

March 3, 2000

Gerard Viatte
Secretariat
Ad Hoc Group on Food Safety
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Paris, France

Dear Mr. Viatte:

Please find enclosed the United States' food safety system country report, which was requested under the OECD Ad Hoc Group on Food Safety's program of work. The document includes the required one-page synthesis identifying the food safety system's key principles, changes, and areas of continuing development. In addition to submitting the paper to the Ad Hoc Group, we will make it available to the public on the U.S. government's food safety Internet site (http://www.foodsafety.gov) and will hold a public meeting on March 22, 2000, prior to the next Ad Hoc Group meeting,

An annex, including a description of how the U.S. government uses precaution in its food safety risk analysis decision-making process, remains under review by federal food safety agencies and will be sent under separate cover in a few days.

Members of the U.S. delegation look forward to discussing the OECD member country food safety papers at the Ad Hoc Group's meeting later this month in Paris.

See the Table of Contents for additional U.S. Food Safety System documents