Introduction of Food Safety Enforcement Enhancement


                                            Release No. 0345.97
                                                               
Statement 

                              by 
                 Secretary Dan Glickman on the 
    Introduction of Food Safety Enforcement Enhancement Act
                          Oct. 7, 1997

"I want to thank Senators Harkin, Daschle, Leahy, and Johnson for sponsoring
the Administration's Food Safety Enforcement Enhancement Act.

"This legislation is another step in the Administration's effort to improve
food safety.   We are moving forward with a broad-based and sophisticated
food safety strategy: cutting-edge research into the root causes of
contamination, stepped-up consumer education, expanded nationwide monitoring
to control more quickly outbreaks, and efforts to improve international food
safety.  Most importantly, we have fundamentally improved our meat and
poultry inspection system by  focusing on prevention and by incorporating
scientific testing directly targeted at bacteria like E. coli and
salmonella. 

"We need new enforcement tools to ensure that this new system is as
effective as possible.  The legislation will provide to USDA the authority
to fine companies that violate food safety laws.  It will require prompt
government notification when contaminated meat or poultry may have entered
the market, and it allows for mandatory recalls when voluntary means fail to
remove all potentially unsafe product from the market.

"It is time to treat food safety as seriously as we do any other threat to
people's safety. Right now, when a car kills due to faulty manufacturing,  a
plane engine fails revealing critical safety gaps, or a toy harms the
children it was meant to please -- the federal government can act quickly to
remove them from the  marketplace.   Food safety is just as important.

"Once again, I thank these Senators and their colleagues for bringing this
legislation forward, and  I look forward to working with them on what we
hope will be a successful attempt to turn this bill into law."


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