 |
Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
|
Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
Remarks prepared for delivery by Thomas J. Billy, Administrator, Food Safety and Inspection Service, before the Third Annual Federal-State Conference on Food Safety, November 20, 1997, Sacramento, Calif.
It's a pleasure to welcome you to the third annual Federal-State Conference on Food Safety. As you know, the goal of this conference is to bring together representatives of Federal and State agencies responsible for protecting the nation's food supply to determine how we can work better to protect the public.
This is the first year we are meeting outside of Washington, D.C., and we appreciate California's invitation to hold the conference here in Sacramento. It is certainly appropriate that a conference on Federal-State partnerships be held on the opposite coast from the Nation's capital. First, it shows the Federal government's commitment to making the States equal partners in food safety. And second, California has been involved in a number of recent food safety partnerships, and we are anxious to hear more about your experiences.
Today, I am pleased we have with us representatives from four state associations--the Association of Food and Drug Officials, the Council of States and Territorial Epidemiologists, the directors of the State Meat and Poultry Inspection Programs, and the U.S. Animal Health Association.
From the Federal government, we have representatives from various USDA agencies, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
We also welcome the many private organizations joining us, such as the Western Growers Association, the International Fresh Cut Produce Association, and the California Strawberry Commission. I know many more groups are represented here, and I apologize for not mentioning them all. I hope you have already had a chance to renew old acquaintances and begin new ones.
Despite the fact that we focus on different commodities and address different parts of the farm-to-table chain, there is one thing we all have in common, and that is the goal, and the responsibility, of helping to reduce the incidence of foodborne illness. This one common goal is all we need to tie us together.
We have a quite a challenge facing us. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that foodborne microbial pathogens account for up to 33 million cases of foodborne illness each year, and up to 9,000 deaths. At the same time, the solutions to food safety problems are becoming more and more complex for many reasons, including the changing spectrum of foodborne illness, new food products with new food safety concerns, and the increase in elderly and immune-compromised persons who are at higher risk of severe illness.
We must work smart. That means taking a farm-to-table approach to ensure we are taking steps at each point in this continuum where hazards can occur. And it means relying on partnerships to better use our resources, avoid duplication and close the gaps that could compromise food safety.
Looking back at the first and second Federal-State conferences, I believe we have made significant progress. At the first meeting in 1995, we were just getting our feet wet. We were still pretty much working on parallel tracks, although the outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 that began in late 1992 was a proving ground, challenging USDA to have better coordination and work with the States. And FoodNet, a model of Federal-State cooperation, was just beginning at the time of the first conference. Deputy Secretary Rominger challenged all us at that meeting to forge new partnerships between our Federal and State counterparts.
At the second conference in 1996, we had greater representation from Federal and State agencies and State organizations, and we began to discuss specific public health problems associated with the farm-to-table chain. Various Federal and State agencies and State organizations made presentations on their food safety activities.
This year, we are ready to look at partnerships already in existence in California and to explore the parameters for establishing new food safety partnerships.
We are fortunate that the President's Food Safety Initiative, which places a heavy emphasis on public and private partnerships to achieve food safety goals, provides us with support at the highest level of government to continue along this path. The President's initiative called for:
a nationwide early-warning system for foodborne illness,
increased food safety inspections, based on appropriate public health standards,
expanded food safety research, and
training and education.
All of these areas provide us with opportunities to form partnerships, and we have seen some progress already.
Two new FoodNet sites--in Rochester, NY and Baltimore, MD, were added to the foodborne disease system and are now operational.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began the process of creating a national electronic network for DNA fingerprint comparison by providing states with DNA technology.
FDA, USDA, CDC, and EPA have all appointed outbreak coordinators who will act as the main contact points in any outbreak that falls within the responsibility of that Agency.
And we recently unveiled the new character "BAC," a green, slime-oozing bacterium, which is the cornerstone of the ambitious "Fight BAC!TM" public education campaign developed through the Partnership for Food Safety Education.
There are many other partnership success stories, including our work to together to update the Food Code, and our work to develop international food safety standards through the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
We have made significant progress, but our work is certainly far from done. We need to explore a number of important questions to help us move further away from concept and closer to reality.
First, we need to establish a framework for partnerships. What are the appropriate roles for Federal, State and local governments? We must recognize that the government agency in the best position to accomplish a food safety activity may be at the local level. On the other hand, there are times when a Federal presence is needed.
We also must explore what are the appropriate roles for industry. Industry must be involved, but we also must be concerned about maintaining public confidence in the ability of regulatory agencies to carry out their oversight responsibilities. It may be that different frameworks are appropriate at different stages of the farm-to-table chain. At the production end of the farm-to-table chain, for instance, it may be appropriate for industry to have a greater role than farther down the chain at the retail level, where cooperative partnerships need to be based on regulatory responsibilities. This is an area where California officials may provide some insight from their recent experiences.
We also need to determine how to engage all stakeholders in the process of establishing frameworks for partnerships so that food safety objectives are accomplished and public confidence is maintained.
In addition to establishing a framework for partnerships, we need to explore whether individual States are doing all that they can to produce a unified front. In California, it is clear that the Department of Food and Agriculture and the Department of Health Services have a close working relationship. I'm sure other States do as well, but we need to encourage all States to operate in this manner.
Food safety leaders in the Federal government believe it is essential to maintain, strengthen, and hopefully expand State programs. USDA is now developing legislation to permit the interstate shipment of State-inspected product under certain conditions, and USDA and FDA are exploring the concept of arranging for States to take over some inspection activities now carried out at the Federal level. If the States are to assume more responsibility for food safety, they must be prepared, have the necessary resources, and have the needed interagency cooperation. And that means taking a good look at whether the departments within your State, and between your State and the Federal agency or agencies involved, can interact in a seamless fashion.
In closing, I look forward to hearing about California's experiences with partnerships and using what they have learned to help develop a framework for future partnerships. I want to thank all of you ahead of time for your participation in this conference, and I look forward to what I expect will be a very interesting conference.
For Further Information Contact:
FSIS Food Safety Education and Communications Staff
Public Outreach and Communications
Phone: (202) 720-9352
Fax: (202) 720-9063
1997 Speeches | Current Speeches | FSIS Home Page | USDA Home Page