Good evening everyone! Thank you, Dr. McLellan, for that kind introduction, and thank you for your work with the IFT. I would like to also thank the deans of the colleges of agriculture, the chief researchers of the food industry, and all the decision makers and advisors here. Your vigilance and creativity keep America's food safe and healthy, and all of you have been doing a remarkable job.

It's great to speak with food experts. I just flew in from Milwaukee, where the food expertise is a little bit less refined. Their idea of food safety enforcement consists of attacking a dancing Italian sausage with a baseball bat.

But outside of Miller Park, America's food is remarkably safe, thanks to you.

And I would like to talk with you tonight about what we are doing and what we can all do together to make sure that Americans eat the safest, highest quality food in the world.

The food we enjoy in America is delicious and the volume and complexity of our choices is always increasing.

• Today, there are more diverse food products - giving consumers more healthy food options.
• And we are adding to these food choices by importing a larger volume and greater diversity of foods than ever before.

When we sit down to enjoy a great dinner with our families, we trust your industry and my Department to make sure the food is safe. So you and I need to be vigilante to deserve their trust. Let me tell you a story about how I became concerned and what I did about it.

Two years ago, when I was appointed Secretary, I had my first briefing from the Acting Commissioner of FDA. I was shocked to learn that we had fewer than 150 food inspectors at our borders, and they inspected fewer than 1 percent of food imports. I resolved to increase that number, and we have.

As a result, Americans have more opportunities to improve and enjoy their lives. But all of us need to make sure that Americans eat safe food in healthy proportions and healthy variety.

FDA has always been concerned about food safety - protecting the food supply from accidents and carelessness. Now all of us at HHS worry about food security - protecting our nation's food supply from all threats, from a random accident, to a deliberate attack, even to a Pittsburgh Pirate armed with a bat.

FDA has been the world's lead intellectual resource on both nutrition and security. And HHS has been making strides in both projects.

Especially at a time of heightened national alert, the security of our food from terrorist attack is a real concern to America. And we are meeting these new food security challenges in a variety of ways.

For example, in the past year, FDA and HHS completed a threat assessment of different categories of food, determining the most serious risks of intentional contamination during various stages of food production and distribution.

I particularly want to thank the panel from IFT who offered us their expertise to conduct these threat assessments. And we will be calling on you again in the future.

HHS has also participated with the Department of Agriculture, the White House Homeland Security Council, and now the new Department of Homeland Security, in numerous counterterrorism exercises to evaluate our emergency response capabilities in simulated food-borne outbreak scenarios.

In addition, we have reviewed food security and rapid response and recovery procedures with industry groups and trade associations.

We are using these results in our food security activities, and we are providing the money that we need to do it. FDA received last year a special appropriation of $151 million to hire more than 800 new employees, of whom 655 work on food safety activities in the field. These new employees are already on the job helping to make the food supply more secure.

We are using a risk-based approach to inspections both for food safety and food security. Overall, we now have FDA inspectors at twice as many ports as before September 11. We are also working to quadruple our annual border inspections from 12,000 to 48,000.

As you know, President Bush signed the law a year ago that enabled us to monitor imported food even better and contain outbreaks of food-borne illness much faster. It's called the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. A sound food-tracking system will be critical to the health and well being of untold numbers of people.

The Act requires that all food production and distribution facilities register with the FDA, provide prior notice of intent to import food and food products, and develop a "one up, one down" record-keeping system. These records will enable us to track contaminated foods forwards and backwards in the supply chain.

To minimize the economic burden on companies, we are developing a fast, easy-to-use, online registration system, and we will allow you to keep the required records in any form you want - on paper, on computers, on whatever. What matters is that you know where you got your food and where you sent it.

Our newest regulation will allow us to respond more quickly to food contamination.

It implements and streamlines the authority to detain any article of food for which we have a credible indication of contamination.

I promised the President and the American people that we would issue the four rules this year, and we are on track to do that. We have already published all four proposed regulations and received extensive public comment. I am grateful to the FDA for their dedication and hard work.

We also need to use our scientific know-how to make our food supply more secure. We need a dedicated research program, and we need to connect government food laboratories - federal, state, and local - electronically, and equip them to respond rapidly to any terrorist threat.

Over the past two years we have realized just how vulnerable we are to external attacks.

We have learned from those tragedies, and are implementing solutions to prevent and mitigate future attacks. You keep innovating, you keep creating, you keep developing the science, and I will make sure that my agency uses it to keep food safe, secure, and healthy.

Now I want to talk to you about that last point: healthy food. We our improving our security from terrorists, but we are not yet winning the battle against the enemy within. There is an epidemic that is slowing our nation down: obesity.

Today, nearly 2 out of every 3 Americans and 20% of children are overweight or obese. And this is a problem that cuts across ethnic lines: About one-fifth of whites are obese. 23% of Latinos are obese. 30% of blacks are obese. In the last 15 years, the percentage of Hawaiians who are obese has increased from 37% to 50%! That is one out of every two!

Chunky may be good, but slim is so much better. Obesity and overweight cause so many serious health problems.

At least 16 million Americans have Type 2 diabetes. That's about one out of every 20 people. At least 16 million more have pre-diabetes. Poor nutrition, overweight, and inactivity cause at least a third of all cancers. And obesity aggravates hypertension, which contributes to the number one cause of death in this country: heart disease. In 2002, heart disease had a negative economic impact of $214 billion - including $115 billion in direct medical costs.

Every day, there's new evidence about the harmful health effects of obesity.

Obese and overweight women face significantly increased risks of having babies with birth defects.

We should also be particularly concerned about America's children. Think of this: Type 2 Diabetes was once a disease of adults 40 and older. Now it's found in children as young as 8.

Why? Because our children are more sedentary and overweight than ever before. In fact, in the past two decades the number of overweight children has tripled. We need to get serious about our children's eating and exercise habits and get them active for at least an hour every day.

This is where I get on my prevention soapbox. I can't help it! So many of our chronic, debilitating illnesses can be prevented through the choices we make every day. Avoid risky behavior.

It makes much more sense to prevent your body from breaking in the first place than it does to wait until you are sick to get it fixed. Prevention works!

Last year I put all of the Department on a diet and lost 15 pounds myself. I feel much better than I did before. I have more energy, and can now work that much harder for America. And I know that I will be able to keep up this good fight for years to come, because losing that weight will probably lengthen my life. The bottom line in America is that we're gaining weight and losing life - particularly our quality of life. We need to lose weight and gain life.

We're doing our part in the Administration to encourage healthy habits. The President's "HealthierUS" program … my department's "Five-A-Day" and "Nine-A-Day" fruits and vegetable programs … our work to close the health gap experienced by too many citizens who are members of ethnic minorities … our many initiatives designed to encourage exercise … and our nationwide campaign to discourage drug and alcohol abuse and smoking … are all important to this effort.

I'm pleased to see that some food and beverage companies are taking steps to make their products healthier and their corporate policies more health conscious.

As you know, Kraft Foods just announced it is going to eliminate all marketing in schools and develop guidelines for all advertising and marketing practices, especially for children. It is also going to make its existing product line healthier.

Kraft is not alone. Earlier this week, I met with the CEO of Coca-Cola. I am pleased to tell you that Coke is also taking some positive steps.

• Adding healthier beverages to its product line.
• Putting nutritional information on vending machines in schools.
• Reaffirming its policy against marketing soft drinks to children under 12
• Moving away from exclusive pouring contracts with big dollar advance payments.
• Providing information to parents and children about how poor nutrition causes obesity

And Unilever is making trans fatty acids a thing of the past in their margarine!

I congratulate Kraft, Coke, Unilever, and other companies who are taking "Steps to a HealthierUS." And I am sure more will follow suit.

The efforts of corporations, communities, governments, and parents can all help to stem the tide of our unprecedented obesity and diabetes epidemics.

This past Wednesday, I issued a final rule requiring that all food labels include levels of trans fat. As you know, trans fat is a type of unhealthy fatty acid. Currently, nutrition labels indicate the amount of saturated fat. But now, Americans will be empowered with better information to make healthier choices.

We are also expanding the availability of nutritional claims that the food industry can make on packaging and advertising.

Decisions like these will spur competition in the food industry to provide healthier options - because the more Americans know about food and its health benefits and consequences, the higher they will set the bar for the industry.

And that is what it really comes down to: I can stand up here and go on and on about our prevention message, but individual Americans must realize that the ultimate responsibility for their own good health is theirs. My Department's work can be effective only if each and every person in this room and across this great country realizes that you are not going to have to eat a salad every day instead of a cheeseburger. You are not going to have to eat climb the stairs to your office instead of taking an elevator. But that your health is up to you.

But with the enthusiasm and determination I see here today, I know that the health and well being of Americans will improve. You are dedicated and you have a promising and proven track record. I look forward to working with you to make Americans stronger, healthier, and more independent.

God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

Last Revised: July 15, 2003

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