According to the World Health Organization, CDC, U.S.D.A. and U.S. Health and Human Services, properly cooked chicken is safe to eat. Nevertheless, we have taken added precautions with a rapid and active response plan in the event that an external disease threatens to enter our food supply. In 2005, we developed an aggressive global plan after several outbreaks of Avian Influenza impacted our supply chain.

Our successful response proved to be a model of success and has been lauded by the industry and global food regulators. We now have the processes and tools in place to make every effort to prevent the disease from entering our supply chain, to work with our poultry supply chain partners to adhere to stricter guidelines, and to make sure the disease does not manifest itself in our restaurants.

Some of our measures include:

• Strict guidelines for raising, handling and processing of poultry before it enters our supply chain. One hundred percent of the poultry we purchase in China and in the U.S. is "under cover", which means it is not in contact with migratory birds, thus minimizing the risk of infection.
• All U.S. suppliers have biosecurity measures in place; all are required to test their flocks and comply with all federal and state regulations.
• Routine quality and food safety audits of all U.S. suppliers. We are also progressively working to implement these audits with more of our suppliers around the globe to ensure that soon 100 percent of our suppliers in our global markets will be audited.
• All poultry suppliers that process poultry for our system do so under strict sanitary guidelines that ensure safety and quality, including strict temperature controls.
• Maintaining strict hygiene and cooking standards in our restaurants.

We have also created a Global Food Safety Task Force, led by members of our senior executive team, with responsibility for addressing key food safety issues in our supply chain and restaurants. The primary goal of the task force is to drive improvements and to prevent reoccurrences of food safety incidents. The task force initiates programs to seek and promote best practices in managing food related health issues and works in conjunction with the Food Standards Council.