HHS Secretary, FDA Commissioner Visit Oklahoma Grocery Store

Thursday, August 9th 2007, 4:37 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt ends a nationwide tour of food supply points Thursday with stops at grocery stores in Missouri and Oklahoma.

Leavitt is leading a team assembled by President Bush last month that is examining import safety issues.

Leavitt and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach have traveled in recent days to California, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Tennessee, visiting farm fields, docks, customs checkpoints, processing plants, warehouses and other points through which food entering the U.S. passes.

They visited a FedEx distribution site in Memphis Wednesday night before spending time Thursday touring a Schnucks store in St. Louis and a Homeland store in northwest Oklahoma City.

Leavitt says one goal of the review is to emphasize to other countries wanting to import to the U.S. that they need to meet American standards for processing and safety.