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REMARKS BY:	DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN  SERVICES
PLACE:		National Food Safety Conference, Washington, D.C.
DATE:		February 23, 1999

So, I hope you'll believe me when I tell you that, while I would have enjoyed spending my morning here with you, I really did have 105 million good reasons to be somewhere else.

I am glad to have the chance to speak with you just for a moment.

This, of course, is the first national conference ever for state secretaries and commissioners of agriculture and health. It's a unique chance to take a close look at the issues and events that have been impacting food safety throughout this country - at both the state and national level.

But what makes this conference so very important isn't just that it provides us a setting to consider where we've been. It also offers us an opportunity to discuss where we need to go.

From this Administration's very first days, President Clinton, Vice President Gore USDA, HHS -- all of us -- have worked hard to ensure that the safety of our nation's food supply receives the attention it deserves.

That vision is what led to the President's Food Safety Initiative and the creation of the President's Food Safety Council. For the first time ever, we have a structure in place to assure that HHS, USDA - and every other government agency involved with food safety - works cooperatively to meet common goals.

As I think Secretary Glickman already mentioned, one example of that new cooperation is that FSIS and FDA staff are now going to be exchanging more information than ever before in the field. What that means is that district offices of each agency will tell their counterparts about recalls, contamination, mislabeling or unhealthy conditions.

Now, we haven't always seen that kind of cooperation in the past, but because of our vision of what food safety ought to be, you're going to see more of it in the future.

And, I can tell you, that same commitment to food safety guides the FDA, the CDC - and my entire Department -- every working day.

For example, at the CDC, we launched PulseNet, a national public health laboratory network that fingerprints bacteria so we can do an even better job detecting foodborne illness. At the same time, we've also expanded FoodNet: our Foodborne Disease and Active Surveillance Network, a system many of you have implemented through sentinel sites at the state level. We all know that CDC scientists are disease detectives. Well, let me tell you: we plan to be to foodborne disease what the FBI is to organized crime.

In our implementation of HAACP for seafood in 1998, the FDA inspected every domestic seafood processor in this country. A number of you here helped us. And we're going to be back and do it again this year.

Over the last year, the FDA also developed an improved technique that can directly detect and quantify E. coli within 30 minutes. It used to take as long as two days!

And today, I'm proud to announce that we made the best even better in our new, 1999 model Food Code.

The model Food Code, which was just published, is now available from the FDA. Soon you'll even be able to download it from a new web site sponsored jointly by HHS, USDA and EPA. The name of our site? It's FoodSafety--dot--gov.

This is the 4th Edition of the model Food Code, and I think it's the best ever. Take a look and you'll see model state legislation for safe food handling. Practical guidelines that can - and should - be adopted and implemented in every government agency responsible for managing food safety risks.

Last June, Secretary Glickman and I wrote every Governor asking them to support adoption of the model Food Code in their state. Some states have already moved ahead and done just that. But we need your support to see to it that the code is also adopted and implemented in those that haven't.

This new model Food Code - together with our other initiatives -- represents something else, too: our commitment to provide public health professionals with the best, science-based measures to reduce risk factors.

And that same commitment is reflected in President's budget.

Instead of wasting precious tax dollars on new bureaucracies, we're carefully investing in scientific research, consumer education and better enforcement. Under the President's new spending plan, funding for the FDA's food safety programs will be increased by $30 million. That means increased domestic inspections of high-risk foods and laboratory analysis. And it's going to allow us to expand coverage of imported food products, too.

With these dollars, we'll be able to expand FDA - and State - outbreak response and traceback activities. We'll be able to educate more consumers. And we'll be able to focus on ways to prevent contamination and develop new methods to detect and identify pathogens. Sure, it costs money, but what's more important is that it saves lives.

That's not all. The President's budget also provides a $10 million increase for the CDC's food safety programs. With those funds the CDC will be able to help more State Health Departments plug into PulseNet. We'll be able to standardize rapid, new testing techniques. And we'll also be able to expand our prevention efforts. I'm talking about the kind of prevention efforts that led to the reduction of dome diseases, such as group B streptococcal or GBS.

Between 1993 and 1995 we saw a 40 percent reduction in GBS cases in communities that implemented the CDC's GBS guidelines. That's what a sound, science-based prevention initiative can achieve, and we need to see more of it.

But you and I know it's not just a question of how many dollars are allocated here in Washington: It's also how well we work with you in the states. That's why I was so proud of the role HHS and USDA played last September when local, state and federal officials met in Kansas City.

The topic on everyone's mind then was coordination and how government -- at every level -- could play its part to assure food safety from the farm to the supper table. In many respects, I think it's the same topic that's before us today. It's taking the scientific knowledge we're generating at the federal level and seeing that it's put to work for families all across this country.

When I was Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin we used to call that the Land Grant philosophy. But it was something else, too: common sense. And, I'm convinced that's the only way we can create the seamless, integrated food safety system America needs - and deserves.

Thank you, and have a great conference.