USTR is the lead agency for matters relating to international trade, and therefore plays a significant role in food safety issues, as the United States both imports and exports significant quantities of food. As such, USTR is an active member of the President's Food Safety Working Group.
USTR also routinely works with other agencies of the Administration so that not only does the United States remain in compliance with its international obligations, but its trading partners do as well, assuring that international trade in food continues to flow smoothly, benefiting the U.S. consumer, the U.S. farmer, and other U.S. stakeholders.
Recently, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack, the co-chairs of the Obama Administration's Food Safety Working Group, launched FoodSafety.gov. FoodSafety.gov is the gateway to food safety information provided by government agencies.
The new site will feature information from all the agencies across the federal government that deal with critical food and food safety information, including preventive tips about how to handle food safely, alerts on life-saving food recalls, and the latest news from the key agencies.
Consumers can sign up in one easy place to receive email and RSS alerts on recalled or potentially unsafe food and hear from the top scientific experts across the government on food safety. Later phases of the site to be launched will include recall feeds for texting and mobile phones.
Be sure to visit foodsafety.gov for all your food safety information.
