President's Council on Food Safety --

President's Council on Food Safety


U.S. Department of Agriculture	Department of Health and Human Services	Environmental Protection Agency	Department of Commerce

DISCUSSION PAPER: Process for developing a Food Safety Strategic Plan for all Federal food safety agencies
December 16, 1998

Action Required: Approval of a process for preparing a food safety strategic plan

The President's Council on Food Safety will be responsible for development of a 5-year Federal food safety strategic plan. The charge is to develop a comprehensive strategic long-range plan that addresses the steps necessary to achieve a seamless food safety system including key public health, resource, and management issues regarding food safety and to ensure the safety of food. The plan will be used to set priorities, improve coordination and efficiency, identify gaps in the current system and mechanisms to fill those gaps, continue to enhance and strengthen prevention and intervention strategies, and develop performance measures to show progress. Each agency will incorporate the relevant parts of the strategic plan into its Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) strategic plan, commensurate with its budget. The scope of the strategic plan (e.g., microbial vs. chemical contamination) is to be determined by the Council.

The food safety agencies have already taken the first steps to develop the food safety strategic plan, by participating in interagency strategic planning sessions and developing a draft vision statement for the U.S. food safety system and the roles of all those involved in food safety.

In addition, during 1997 and 1998, the federal food safety agencies engaged a wide range of stakeholders in discussions about food safety issues through a series of public meetings and through written comments to public dockets.

Recommendation: Convene a committee to develop a comprehensive food safety strategic plan based on the recommendations received from the various constituencies. The committee will consist of representatives from each of the following agencies: HHS, USDA, EPA, CDC, and NPR.

The committee will follow the following process:

First conduct a content analysis of the transcripts and dockets of the 1998 meetings and public comments to determine the major themes, issues, and subject areas that emerged during the public outreach phase.
Consider the conclusions and recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences' report on Ensuring Safe Food from Production to Consumption, the review of Federal food safety research and the research plan currently being developed by an interagency working group under the auspices of the National Science and Technology Council, input from the 50-State meeting on state/local issues and recommendations, and input from the agencies involved.
Develop a proposed set of strategic goals and objectives and present a draft strategic plan to the President's Council.
Following Council review and approval, present the draft food safety strategic plan to the public for comment in January 2000.
Review the public comments and submit a final draft of the strategic plan to the Council in July 2000 for approval.

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