Food Safety Initiative Fact Sheet
May 12, 1997
"We have built a solid foundation for the health of America's families. But
clearly we must do more. No parent should have to think twice about the juice
they pour their children at breakfast, or a hamburger ordered during dinner
out."
--President Bill Clinton, Radio Address, January 25, 1997
Today, Vice President Al Gore announced a five-point Administration plan to
strengthen and improve food safety for the American people. The plan sets
forth new steps the Administration will take this year to strengthen food
safety and details how we will use $43.2 million in new funds the President has
requested in his fiscal year 1998 budget. The plan is outlined in a report
presented to the Vice President today by Health and Human Services Secretary
Donna E. Shalala, Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, and
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner. The President
requested the report in January.
Working with consumers, producers, industry, states, universities, and the
public, the Administration has developed measures to reduce foodborne illness
from microbial contaminants; the Administration will:
- Improve inspections and expand preventive safety measures: FDA will use $8.5
million of the new funds, in part, to hire additional Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) inspectors for seafood plants and to expand the Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) approach to the fruit and vegetable
juice industries. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will propose
preventive measures, including HACCP, this year for egg products.
- Increase research to develop new tests to detect foodborne pathogens and to
assess risks in the food supply: The agencies will target $16.5 million to
critical research needs, such as giving federal, state and local food safety
officials new tools to detect these pathogens, some of which -- like the
Hepatitis A virus and cyclospora -- cannot now be detected in many foods.
- Build a national Early Warning System to detect and respond to outbreaks of
foodborne illness earlier, and to give us the data we need to prevent future
outbreaks: With $13.7 million of the new funds, USDA, FDA, and Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention will increase the number of active "sentinel
sites" across the country from 5 to 8 (current sites are in Northern
California, Oregon, Minnesota, Georgia and Connecticut; new sites added this
year are in New York and Maryland, and the eighth will open next year) and will
equip these sites with new technology to identify the diseases and their
sources and to communicate these findings nationwide rapidly.
- Establish a national education campaign that will improve food handling in
homes and retail outlets. FDA, USDA, CDC, and the Department of Education will
launch a new public-private partnership with industry, producer and consumer
groups, and states to raise public awareness of safe food practices. Using
public and private funds, the partnership will develop, disseminate, and
evaluate a single food-safety slogan and several standard messages. USDA and
FDA will use $4 million of the new 1998 funds to support this and other
education activities.
- Strengthen coordination and improve efficiency: USDA, CDC, FDA and EPA will
form a new intergovernmental group to improve federal, state and local
responses to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. Working with all stakeholders,
the agencies will develop a strategic plan to further improve coordination, use
resources more efficiently, and measure progress toward our common goal of
reducing foodborne illness.
Building on Our Accomplishments
Food safety is a major public health challenge: millions of foodborne illnesses
and thousands of food-related deaths occur annually. From the beginning, the
Administration has made improving the safety of the nation's food supply a top
public health priority.
- Building on the recommendations of the Vice President's National Performance
Review, the President put in place new science-based, hazard prevention systems
for seafood, meat, and poultry. In late 1995 the Administration issued
new rules to ensure seafood safety.
In July 1996, President Clinton announced
new regulations
to modernize the nation's meat and poultry inspection system for
the first time in 90 years. The new Early Warning System will gather critical
scientific data to further improve these prevention systems
- In August, 1996 President Clinton signed the
Food Quality Protection Act
-- a
comprehensive overhaul of our laws that regulate pesticides in food putting in
place reforms that the Administration had urged since 1993. These reforms will
ensure health and safety for American families through a more protective, more
stringent health-based standard plus special new provisions to protect the
health of infants and children from pesticide risks.
- Last August, President Clinton also signed a new
safe drinking water law
that
strengthens protections to ensure that American families have clean safe tap
water -- improvements that the Administration has called for since September
1993.
More information on the National Food Safety Initiative Program is available at
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fs-toc.html.
Executive Office of the President
May 12, 1997
This is a mirror of the page that appeared at
<http://www.fda.gov/opacom/foodsafety/fsfact.htm>
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