The Clinton administration on Monday made a push for its five- point plan to improve food safety, using $43.2 million requested by President Clinton in his fiscal 1998 budget plan.
The plan, announced by Vice President Gore at a news conference, was detailed in a report released jointly by the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency. The White House did not specify whether the requested $43.2 million was approved as part of the balanced budget deal with congressional Republicans.
The plan calls for increased research of foodborne diseases, stricter safety precautions for fruit and vegetable juices, improved seafood inspection, and increased investment in research, risk assessment and surveillance. Of the funding, $16.5 million would be used for research to develop new tests to detect foodborne pathogens such as the Hepatitis A virus and cyclospora, which cannot now be detected in many foods.
The administration also proposed investing $13.7 million to increase the number of active "sentinel sites" across the country from five to eight and equip the sites with new technology to identify diseases and their sources.
The Food and Drug Administration would also use $8.5 million to hire additional inspectors for seafood plants and to more closely scrutinize the fruit and vegetable industries.
In addition, the plan calls for the FDA, USDA, the Centers for Disease Control and the Education Department to launch a new public-private partnership with industry, producer and consumer groups to raise public awareness of safe food practices. That project would use $4 million of the new FY98 funds.
The departments and agencies also would establish a new governmental group to improve federal, state and local responses to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses.
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