US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced last week the opening of the new Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center (CTAC) for Import Safety, which operates under the direction of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP).The center is a recommendation from President Obama’s Food Safety Working Group, a group that advises the president on various methods to upgrade the US food safety system for the coming challenges of the 21st century. While operating under the CBP, the CTAC while be under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Health and Humans Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a co-chair of the Food Safety Working Group, commented on the importance of the new center, ‘"As co-chairs of the Food Safety Working Group, we are committed to improving the safety of food produced in the United States, and also improving the safety of all the food that makes it to the American consumers' dinner tables . . . With so much food coming from abroad, we must do all we can to ensure that it conforms to the same safety standards as our own food safety systems."’
Secretary Vilsack made the following statement, ‘"As part of the Food Safety Working Group's efforts to strengthen the food safety system in this country, we identified close cooperation between federal agencies as a key to achieving real progress. . . The new CTAC announced today is an important step toward the type of collaboration necessary to ensure that Americans have access to a safe and healthy food supply."’
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano made this statement about the new center, "This new targeting center will enhance the inspection of goods entering our country by centralizing and strengthening federal efforts to protect U.S. consumers."
The center, which is located in Washington, DC, is one of six commercial targeting centers in the US operated by the CBP. The new one will “specifically target shipments of imported cargo, including food, for possible safety violations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and other partnering government agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, will provide on-site expertise at the Center.”
Food safety has been in the news all year, and it will continue to be as the government looks for new ways to improve the food safety system in the US.
To read the USDA news release on the center click here.
Posted: 12/14/09
