HHS, USDA Unveil New Food Safety Consumer Web Site
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the co-chairs of the Obama Administration's Food Safety Working Group, have unveiled a new consumer Web site today at www.foodsafety.gov. The site is designed to help consumers and families get all the latest information on food safety and food recalls in one convenient place.
The 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 e-mail 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. The site will also feature a foodsafety.gov widget that the public and the media are encouraged to download and promote on their Web sites and social networking sites. The widget will instantly update viewers with the latest food safety recalls and will be a valuable public health and safety tool.
Leaders from HHS and USDA praised the new site and said it would be a valuable tool in their efforts to keep our food supply safe and consumers healthy.
"The highest mission of any government is keeping its citizens safe. In this administration, we see public health as an essential part of that mission and this new Web site as an essential way we will can help keep people safe from unhealthy food and food handling practices and up-to-date on critical food recalls," Sebelius said. "Consumers no longer will have to search around in different places trying to figure out which agency manages which food product. All the information that they will need will be one easy place at foodsafety.gov."