The tilapia was from Ecuador, the shrimp from Indonesia and the Alaskan king crab legs were on sale yesterday, "Captain" Frank Smiechowski explained as he leaned over the Giant Eagle seafood counter to show his wares to Mike Leavitt, U.S. Health and Human Services secretary.

"We've got the whole world back here," said the flamboyant employee in the captain's hat who landed a supporting role in the secretary's whirlwind tour of the grocery store in Robinson.

The stop in the Pittsburgh-area supermarket was one of several planned for Mr. Leavitt, who is visiting retailers and talking about import safety as the holiday shopping season picks up speed.

The health secretary became a point man on the issue this summer when President Bush tapped him to lead an interagency commission on import safety. The months before had brought a steady stream of recalls involving products from pet food to toys with lead paint to toothpaste.

Two weeks ago, he delivered a set of recommendations to his boss. The report called for changes meant to catch problems before they occur, including training foreign inspectors, creating a process of certifying makers of high-risk foods who meet certain standards, and allowing mandatory recalls in very serious cases.

"This is a long-term challenge," said Mr. Leavitt, who described the problems that have occurred as the result of a maturing global economy in which goods move constantly across borders. He said other countries are facing the same issues.

Under the commission's recommendations, he said, the emphasis would switch from trying to catch problems at the borders to identifying issues at the source. With more than 800,000 importers bringing products through 300 ports, inspecting everything would not be practical.

"I want to build quality at each step," he said, using the example of a Texas plant manager who tracked each lettuce crop from the day it was planted to the water used to irrigate it to the containers transporting the items.

Some of the onus for making sure items are safe continues to rest on retailers and their customers. Mr. Leavitt held up a Big Bird toy purchased in New York yesterday morning and advised consumers to both read labels and to demand that retailers explain how they are assuring the quality of what goes on their shelves.

The health secretary's busy day included stops at a Toys R Us store in New York's Times Square and at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia before heading west. Today he is scheduled to be in Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis.

Mainly the message seemed to be one of reassurance. "Our food is safe," he said. "It's not perfect, but it's the safest in the world."

Industry and consumer groups have welcomed a number of the administration's proposals, although some have questioned where funding would come from. The secretary said yesterday that he is confident the issue will win support during the budget process in the next few years.

Not all of the year's big recalls have involved imported items, including those involving frozen pot pies made in a Missouri plant and frozen beef from a company in New Jersey. Yet with nearly $2 trillion in goods coming across the borders, imports have drawn a lot of attention.

At the seafood counter, Mr. Smiechowski conceded that customers have concerns about China, in particular, and been skeptical about some products. Still, sales of a recent crab offering from there did well, he told the secretary.

In December, Mr. Leavitt expects to go to China to try to finalize agreements on product safety that he said have been in the works for almost six months. "They want access to our markets," he noted.

Although there was no indication the secretary is an Advantage Card holder, this marks his second visit to a Giant Eagle store this year. In August, he stopped at one of the O'Hara company's stores near Cleveland as part of an earlier tour.

Then he and Sandy Glatter, the grocer's director of quality assurance, discussed a recent recall involving botulism in canned products made by Castleberry's Food Co. Ms. Glatter explained how she had wanted to call affected loyalty card holders but found that wasn't feasible because there were 86,000.

Their discussion, and his suggestions, helped trigger the idea of setting up an automated phone system that could call loyalty card holders affected by a recall.

Ms. Glatter said yesterday that Giant Eagle was testing an automated calling system that should be able to get word out to all of the company's store managers within 20 minutes. That same system might eventually be able to contact consumers, she said.

Mr. Leavitt used the topic to praise his host. "That's great leadership," he said.

Among the recommendations in the import safety commission's action plan is one calling for the private sector to use technology in just that way.