Industry Advocacy

WASHINGTON - Homeland security chief Tom Ridge on Thursday told food industry officials the Bush administration is looking at making a single federal agency responsible for food safety, The Associated Press reports.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - The nation's largest food manufacturers and restaurant industry executives will gather at The Food Safety Summit in Washington, DC March 13-15 to discuss how to protect the nation's food supplies from the threat of bioterrorism.

DALLAS - The Board of Governors of Food Distributors International (FDI) has approved a plan in which the association's wholesale grocery companies will join an umbrella organization with members of the Food Marketing Institute (FMI).

LONDON - British supermarket group Asda said today it will lobby the UK to allow more competition in the pharmacy industry, potentially saving consumers 420 million pounds ($600 million) a year, Reuters reports.

TOKYO - Japan's largest meat dealer said today it repackaged inexpensive beef and pork as top-quality brands for sale to supermarkets, The Associated Press reports. The food-labeling scandal is the second to hit the country in just over a month.

DALLAS - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) launched its boycott against Safeway Inc.'s supermarket chains Monday, the Dallas Morning News reports.

WASHINGTON - Some of the nation's largest employers including Wal-Mart joined a group of governors on Monday in urging Congress to close loopholes used by big drug companies to delay generics from reaching pharmacy shelves, Newark, New Jersey's Star-Ledger newspaper reports.

WASHINGTON - A new report conducted for the Institute of Food Technologists suggests America's food supply will be threatened by dangerous bacteria for a long time as new germs arrive in imported products and microbes already here develop in new forms, The Associated Press reports.