Remarks announcing a food safety initiative and an exchange with reporters

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 6, 1997

The President. Thank you Mr. Vice President, Secretary Shalala, Deputy Secretary Rominger, Cathie Woteki, Dr. Friedman, all the representatives of the groups that have helped us come to this day.

Our Government made a fundamental promise to the American people of a bountiful and safe food supply way back at the beginning of this century. It is a promise that we have had to renew our commitment to periodically over the years and a promise that needed a lot of work when I became President. From the day I took office, I worked very hard to honor that commitment, to make our food supply the world's safest, even safer.

In 1993, the Vice President's National Performance Review recommended an overhaul of our food safety procedures so that we could use the best scientific technology available in inspection methods to make sure that we had put in the best preventive controls to keep our food supply the world's safest.

Since then, we have taken major steps. We first put in place rigorous new safety standards for seafood, meat, and poultry products, throwing out archaic and ineffective methods of inspection that had not been updated for nearly a century. We've required slaughterhouses to test for deadly E. coli and salmonella bacteria. We've begun developing new safety standards for fruit and vegetable juices. We've strengthened our system of guaranteeing that our drinking water will remain safe and improved public health protections for pesticide uses on food. And we brought a host of Federal agencies together to boost food safety research, education, and surveillance efforts around our Nation. In so doing, we're using the world's best science to help prevent food contamination tragedies before they happen, to make sure our supply of food is as safe as it can be.

Today, our food supply remains the world's safest, but we can't rest on those accomplishments. We have to do more. At the time when Americans are eating more and more food from around the globe, we must spare no effort to ensure the safety of our food supply from whatever source.

Today, I want to tell you the new steps we're taking to ensure that our fruits and vegetables, including those imported from other countries, meet the highest health and safety standards. First, I'm asking Congress to give the Food and Drug Administration the power and the obligation to ban. the importation of fruits, vegetables, and other foods from countries whose safety precautions do not meet American standards. This new law would be similar to a law that already requires the United States Department of Agriculture to keep meat and poultry from countries with inferior food safety systems out of our stores.

In my next budget, I will provide enough funds to ensure that the FDA can fully implement this new legislation by dramatically expanding its international food inspection force. With these efforts, we can make sure that no fruits and vegetables cross our borders, enter our ports, or reach our dinner tables without meeting the same strict standards as those grown here in America. Our food safety system is the strongest in the world, and that's how it's going to stay.

I'm also directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture to work together in close cooperation with the agricultural community to develop the first-ever specific safety standards for the growing, processing, shipping, and selling of fruits and vegetables. These standards will address potential food safety problems throughout the production and distribution system, and they'll improve the sanitation and safety practices of all those seeking to sell produce in the United States market.

I'm asking Secretary Shalala and Glickman to report back to me within 90 days with a complete schedule for developing these standards within a year. I'll also ask them to submit a comprehensive plan to improve the monitoring of food safety programs abroad, to help foreign countries upgrade their safety precautions and toughen food inspections at the border.

Being a parent is perhaps the toughest job in the world. Our parents deserve the peace of mind that comes from knowing the food they set before their children is safe. With today's new actions, we can help make their jobs much easier.

And, again, let me thank all of those who were involved in this effort as I sign this order. Thank you very much.

[At this point, the President signed the memorandum.]

The President. Thanks.

Appropriations Legislation

Q. Mr. President, will you be using the line item veto -

The President. Excuse me?

Q. Will you be using the line item veto on any of the appropriations bills that you've just passed - that you've just signed?

The President. Well, let me say, I have received only - I've received one memorandum from my staff on one bill. And that came in kate last night, so I haven't read it. But I will consider it - as the bills come in, I will ask for a review of the potential uses by specific bill and make judgments as we go along. I have nothing to report at this time, because I have received only one memorandum, and I haven't read it.