Remarks prepared for delivery by Bryce Quick, Deputy Administrator, Food Safety and Inspection Service, at the FSIS Meat and Poultry Inspection Seminar for International Government Officials, July 17, 2006, in Washington, DC.

On behalf of all of agency employees, I want to welcome you, and thank you for attending FSIS' Meat and Poultry Inspection Seminar for International Government Officials.

This seminar has been offered each year for over fifteen years. As hosts we look forward to this event, because while we are sharing our policies and procedures with you, we learn about the various ways your systems operate. It really is a joint educational opportunity.

As you know, the major focus of the seminar is on the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). While here, you will be able to see how we implement HACCP and Pathogen Reduction initiatives in the United States.

In addition, many other topics will be discussed over the next several weeks, including an overview of the inspection regulations and procedures enforced by FSIS to assure that meat, poultry and egg products are produced, packaged and labeled in a way that ensures a safe and wholesome product not only to U.S. consumers but to consumers worldwide.

Throughout the sessions, your feedback and insight will be very important as we discuss different issues. We have set the program up so that officials from other USDA agencies also have a chance to meet and talk with you. For example, one of our speakers is from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), an agency we work with on a daily basis. Our state partners are also interested in your perspectives, and we have also arranged a meeting with an industry representative — someone who is required to follow our regulatory requirements.

I hope you will find the field trips where you will have an opportunity to see a little bit of Virginia and Maryland to be a highlight of this session. During these trips, you'll visit a poultry plant, a livestock slaughter plant, a processing plant, and a cold storage facility so you can see how our regulations are implemented. These trips will hopefully spur more discussion and we hope you will be willing to share your thoughts on these real life examples of HACCP in the U.S.

Our field trips aren't all work though and we hope you will enjoy exploring our nation's capital where you will have an opportunity to visit the White House and Capitol (located a couple of blocks from your hotel).

Getting back to the seminar itself, our major objectives are to:

• give you a better understanding of how the U.S. inspection system works;
• share information regarding alternative inspection systems; and
• build lasting relationships that could help to avoid inspection problems at our ports, and might enable us to consider harmonization of inspection procedures in the future for all countries throughout the world.

We are pleased to have more than 40 government officials here who represent more than 25 countries. My hope is that when this seminar is completed, you will feel this has been an excellent opportunity to study the U.S. inspection system, share information, and build long term relationships. More importantly, this provides all of us a chance to learn from each other in how we can further enhance food safety on a global scale.

I want to thank you again for coming and allowing us the opportunity to learn from each other over the coming weeks. I know we will all leave with a wealth of information that we can use in the future.

Again, welcome.