I am honored to be invited to the National Press Club to discuss food safety. It is certainly an indication of the high level of interest that this topic is attracting. The timing is also wonderful, because part of our mission is consumer education. This is clearly a good time to remind consumers about the practices that can put their families at risk during the holiday season.

In times past, it was a regular practice for American families to sit down to Sunday "dinner," a mid-day meal rich in variety, taste and family togetherness. Now Sundays are frequently taken up by less-culinary pursuits, and consumers prepare feasts only a few times each year. This means that many common-sense precautions aren't so common-sense anymore for our holiday chefs.

Preparing your holiday banquet shouldn't be a high risk activity! However, government data shows that 15 to 20 percent of poultry are contaminated with Salmonella and even more with Campylobacter. Consumers need to treat every turkey as though it harbors a feast of bacteria. And turkey isn't the only problem. Popular holiday favorites from stuffing to eggnog to cider can also cause food poisoning. Here are some of CSPI's tips for safe holiday eating:

• First, treat your turkey with respect. Don't leave it waiting -- not in the store, not in the car, not at your house. Buy it last and refrigerate it promptly.

• Warm up to your turkey gradually. Start defrosting your frozen twenty pound turkey in your refrigerator on Sunday before Thanksgiving. For a quicker-but-labor-intensive thaw, submerge your plastic-wrapped turkey in cold water but change the water every 30 minutes. (But a warning: This method can still take 10 hours for a 20 pound turkey.)

• Clear the decks. When you are ready to start cooking, clear your counter top or table to prevent the raw bird from contaminating other foods. And watch out for raw turkey juices, which can also harbor hazardous bacteria. When it comes to poultry, cross- contamination is probably responsible for as many cases of illnesses as undercooking. Thoroughly wash all counter tops, cutting boards and utensils which have contact with your raw turkey and throw your sponges in the dishwasher to sanitize them regularly.

• Just cook it. For the cooking illiterate or the just plain hungry, it can take an amazing amount of time to thoroughly roast that bird. Don't rush it! That is the key. Undercooked turkey can harbor Salmonella and Camplyobacter, which together are responsible for 80 percent of all illnesses and 75 percent of all deaths linked to meat and poultry. Use a meat thermometer, even if the turkey has a pop-up timer. Although these timers are generally reliable, they are not fail safe. Insert the thermometer into the thigh. When the temperature reaches 180 degrees, the turkey is done.

• To stuff or not to stuff. USDA created quite an uproar the first time it told consumers that it wasn't safe to stuff their turkeys. But look at it from the standpoint of a Salmonella germ. Stuffing creates a warm moist environment on the inside of a turkey that is the perfect place for Salmonella and other pathogens to grow. They will be even more at home if you add ingredients like raw oysters or uncooked eggs, which can carry their own bacteria. Stuffing can be a great recipe for a food safety disaster during your holiday!

The safest bet is to prepare stuffing on the stove and then to stuff the turkey after it is fully roasted. For the Thanksgiving purists who insist on cooking the stuffing inside the turkey, stuff the turkey right before putting it in the oven and please, please use a meat thermometer to make sure that the stuffing reaches 165 degrees at the center. Remember, a fully cooked turkey can still contain undercooked and even hazardous stuffing.

• Serve it mulled. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but here goes. Apple cider, the unpasteurized kind that you can buy on winding country roads during these short days and drink by the gallon during these long nights, is not safe enough to serve kids and elderly consumers any more. Last year, it became clear that cider is an excellent vehicle for several newer food safety hazards, like E. coli O157:H7 and Cryptosporidium.

The good news is that consumers can make unpasteurized cider safe by heating it to 160 degrees on the stove. Boiling cider will also make it safe, and saves fiddling with a thermometer. Then serve it either hot or cold without worry.

• Pasteurize or die. (Just kidding, we hope.) If you have ever tasted the difference between homemade eggnog and the stuff in the carton, you know this is one treat that is worth the effort to make at home. (And if you make it at home, you can adjust the ingredients to lower the fat.) Unfortunately, homemade eggnog is another vehicle for food poisoning. The reason: Eggs harbor the Salmonella strain that is responsible for more cases of illnesses linked to food poisoning outbreaks than any other single cause. But here the solution is also simple. Consumers can either use pasteurized egg products in making their homemade eggnog or heat the egg and milk mixture to 160 degrees.

But, even with a safe holiday season, it is unlikely that safe food will be a hallmark of 1997. In fact, it seems that almost weekly there is another major food poisoning episode somewhere in the nation. Two weeks ago, it was Salmonella-contaminated stuffed hams at a church dinner that killed two and infected over 700. Last month, it was hepatitis A from a Michigan delicatessen that killed one and sickened dozens. In August, an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 from beef patties resulted in the largest-ever meat recall.

Since 1990, food poisoning outbreaks have become commonplace and the types of foods that are contaminated seem to be growing. While we all know that meat, poultry and seafood are high-risk foods, we don't expect to find Salmonella on cantaloupes, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts and in orange juice; or harmful E. coli in apple cider and on lettuce and alfalfa sprouts; or even parasites, like Cyclospora and Cryptosporidum, on raspberries, lettuce, and in apple cider; or hepatitis A on strawberries served in the school lunch program. Yet, such unexpected outbreaks are occurring with disturbing frequency.

These examples are a few of the 26 outbreaks linked to fruits and vegetables since 1990 that CSPI has identified. These outbreaks alone involve over 5000 cases of illness. And they represent just the tip of the iceberg. Fruits and vegetables are rarely the first food suspected when people become ill from Salmonella, E. coli, or other pathogens, so it takes a lot of detective work to track down a fruit or vegetable culprit in a food poisoning outbreak. Many outbreaks like these go unrecognized and many, many victims remain uncounted.

Regardless of what consumers thought before, one thing is becoming apparent. Food poisoning is not just a belly ache anymore. The causes of food-borne illness seem to be tougher and less treatable than before.

For example, when we talk about the bacterium E. coli O157:H7, we are talking about a devastating human pathogen. First identified in 1982, it is now the single largest cause of renal failure among American children. Just a few bacteria can leave a child hanging between life and death for weeks on end, while the parents hope and pray. There is no cure yet. Doctors support the children through blood transfusions and kidney dialysis, which can be very tough for a little child. Thankfully, not all infected children die but the survivors often have lifelong effects from the illness. And children aren't the only victims. It causes severe illnesses and deaths in adults and the elderly as well.

E. coli O157:H7 has certainly taken its place in the rogues' gallery of food-borne bacteria. Some of the trends that we are watching with E. coli include (1) how many strains other than O157:H7 will be found to cause severe human illness and (2) how many animals, other than cattle, serve as carriers. Our long-term ability to control this pathogen will depend on the answer to these questions and others.

Cyclospora, the parasite that raspberries made famous, can also cause a devastating illness if left untreated. While not fatal, it can cause weeks of extreme fatigue and result in consumers losing twenty or more pounds. During the 1996 outbreak traced to imported raspberries, it took doctors weeks to recognize the condition because it is so rare in the United States. At least it was rare, until Guatemalan raspberries made clear the full implications of unrestricted world trade.

There are many unanswered questions about the Cyclospora parasite, even among US scientists. Those studying and treating food-borne diseases in Third World countries are the best experts. Now we are waiting to see if Cyclospora has somehow gotten a toe hold in the United States, which would mean we might see cases cropping up next year without any link to imported produce. The other trend worth watching is whether other disease-causing agents common in foreign countries gain entry to the US through our newly expanding food imports.

Another emerging hazard is Salmonella typhimurium DT104. This strain of Salmonella originated in Europe and has recently appeared in the US. It is found in meat products, particularly beef, but cases in Europe have been linked to other foods as well. DT 104 causes severe cases of food poisoning, which frequently require hospitalization. DT 104 is also resistant to many types of antibiotics that are used to treat patients with the most severe symptoms. And the news from Europe is that the strain can develop additional antibiotic resistance very quickly. DT 104 is truly an emerging "super bug," which draws into question the widespread use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. It would be a travesty if the use of antibiotics to speed the growth of livestock meant more severe food poisoning illnesses for humans and more treatment-resistant illnesses like Salmonella typhimurium DT104.

Following the Hudson beef recall in August, members of Congress started to look for solutions to address the food safety problems that we are facing. Two weeks ago, Representative Vic Fazio (D-CA) and Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) introduced the Safe Food Act of 1997, which would direct the President to create the independent Food Safety Administration, formed from numerous agencies which currently share food safety responsibilities.

Making more effective use of existing government resources is an obvious solution that CSPI started promoting last spring, together with the families of Safe Table Our Priority (S.T.O.P.), a victim support and advocacy organization. Today food safety functions are spread out between numerous federal agencies:

• USDA employs 7000 inspectors at its Food Safety and Inspection Service who visit 6500 meat, poultry and egg products plants.

• The Food and Drug Administration employs fewer than 700 inspectors to visit 53,000 food processing plants.

• The Environmental Protection Agency approves pesticide residue levels on food but FDA enforces them.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects food poisoning data from the states and conducts outbreak investigations.

• The Agricultural Research Service funds food safety research.

• As many as 15 agencies do other tasks, including seafood inspection at the Department of Commerce and egg inspection at USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service. Both of these functions are funded by the respective industries.

Clearly this has to change. The future challenges are too great. We can't address twenty-first century food safety problems with horse-and-buggy government programs. With so much fragmentation, sometimes nothing gets done. One agency doesn't have responsibility. Another doesn't have the research money. A third is too busy addressing other pressing public health problems.

After over 200 students and employees in a Michigan school system came down with hepatitis A last spring that was traced to contaminated strawberries served in the school lunch, Sue Doneth, the mother of a 10 year old victim called me and asked "Who didn't do their job?" She wanted to track down the person in the federal government who had the duty to protect her daughter from those contaminated berries. Today, there is no single person or agency who failed Sue Doneth. Today, the whole system fails that mother's test.

With dangerous new pathogens entering the food supply, we need government programs ready, willing and able to tackle these challenges. Representative Fazio said recently that the new independent Food Safety Administration he is proposing "will have a single mission: to ensure that American consumers are eating safe food." The Food Safety Administration would be a wish come true for many American parents.

Thank you for your time this morning. I would be happy to answer your questions now.