USDA's Food Safety Record Laid Out for Panel

March 15, 2002

USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Elsa Murano told the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee that the department continues to strengthen meat, poultry and egg food safety systems to protect consumers. She also detailed agency actions that are improving food safety protections for U.S. consumers.

"For two consecutive years, we have proposed record-level spending for food safety programs and strengthened our inspection systems to ensure regulatory compliance and safety. We will continue to examine prudent and sound measures that will further strengthen USDA's food safety programs," she said.

USDA's fiscal 2003 budget request for food safety provides $905 million to fund 7,600 inspectors, veterinarians and other food safety officials who are responsible for safeguarding the nation's meat and poultry supply.

It also calls for new spending to strengthen research activities, improve the quality of scientific data on animal disease-based threats to public health, expand risk prevention and management education for small and very small meat, poultry and egg producers, and upgrade the agency's information and communication systems.

Murano also announced that USDA will host a series of public symposiums this year on pathogen reduction and microbial testing. Nine forums are scheduled this year, including a two-day food safety and scientific symposium in May, with several others to follow later this year.

She also highlighted statistics that continue to show improvement in food safety. This includes Salmonella testing data that shows that the prevalence of this pathogen has significantly decreased in all product categories, including turkey. As well, data from the Centers for Disease Control show significant reductions in food-borne illness.