Clinton asks for a 12% hike in food safety spending

Prepared Foods, March, 1999

President Clinton proposed a 12% jump or $105 million increase in the 2000 budget for food safety. If approved, this increase would push food safety expenditures past the $1 billion mark.

The lion's share, $65 million, would be earmarked to the USDA for expanding and improving its inspections of small meat and poultry processing plants. The FDA would receive about $30 million, the majority of which would be devoted to increasing its inspection staff by 60 persons. Under the plan, about $10 million would go to the CDC to increase the number of its labs that conduct DNA fingerprinting of foodborne pathogens.

In related news, the FDA announced in January that Morris E. Potter has been named director of its new Food Safety Initiative. Potter will oversee all food safety activities at the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.