Gilbert Gutknecht: “We import every day thousands of tons of food. It surprises me how many tons. In fact, the number I remember is we…”

“We import every day thousands of tons of food. It surprises me how many tons. In fact, the number I remember is we import roughly 318,000 tons of plantains every year, and every time we eat a plantain that comes in from a foreign country, we take a certain amount of risk, because that could contain some food-borne pathogen. We keep very good records on how many people get ill from eating imported foods. Let me give a couple of examples. In 1996, 1,466 Americans became seriously ill eating raspberries from Guatemala, 1,466. The next year they did a little better. Only 1,012 Americans became seriously ill from eating raspberries from Guatemala. The point I am really trying to make here is we take a certain amount of risk. I believe that the risk, particularly with the new technologies, and I am holding in my hand a tamper-proof, counterfeit-proof package for pharmaceuticals. Here is one that is currently in use by the company Astrozenica. This is the first version of the tamper-proof, counterfeit-proof packaging. So this whole issue of safety relatively speaking, even today, it is very, very safe.”