U.S. hopes to open Food and Drug offices abroad

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - The United States hopes to open Food and Drug Administration offices in Asia and Latin America in a bid to tighten safety standards and stop tainted food imports, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said on Friday.

Leavitt told Reuters in an interview he hoped agreements would be in place to open three FDA offices in China, two in Latin America and one in India by this autumn.

As well as carrying out inspections, the offices would exchange information on threats with local authorities and form rapid-reaction teams to manage food scares -- aiming to limit the damage done to public health and trade.

"When you are dealing with a food incident, speed is important," Leavitt said.

The proposed measures come after more than 800 people across the United States were poisoned by a recent salmonella outbreak that has inspectors checking possible contamination of tomatoes from Mexico and Florida.

Leavitt said existing safeguards and inspection staff levels could become overwhelmed as U.S. food import volumes grow.

"The strategy of standing at our borders and catching imports that are unsafe, or which might not meet our standard, simply will not be adequate for the future," he said.

Leavitt was in Panama City at the end of a weeklong visit to Mexico and Central America. After Canada and Mexico, Central America is the third-largest food exporting region to the United States.

In March, the FDA issued an import alert for melons coming from Honduras, which were thought to contain salmonella.

The FDA is still investigating the latest outbreak of salmonella in tomatoes and has sent teams of experts to Mexico and Florida to inspect farms where the tomatoes may have become contaminated.

Leavitt said the Bush administration also wanted to agree on a set of food safety rules with Central America governments before leaving office in January and establish an export certification plan for certain sectors, which could later be expanded.

"We intend to give products preferential treatment at our borders if they have been certified," he said. "The value is to the producer and the country to modify their system as quickly as possible."

Leavitt said he also hoped Congress would soon give the FDA the authority to carry out mandatory product recalls.

(Editing by Chris Aspin and Peter Cooney)