July 8, 2009
Obama administration promises to bolster US food safety
Food safety policy in the US is in dire need of improvement,, and changes will come soon, Vice President Joe Biden and other Obama administration officials said Tuesday (Jul 7).
"Our food safety system must be updated," Biden said. "One in four people get sick every year due to food-borne illness, and children and the elderly are more at risk."
Salmonella and E. coli bacteria are particularly dangerous and are the targets of new efforts coming from Obama's Food Safety Working Group, US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday.
Vilsack said the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, or FSIS, has been tasked with creating new standards to reduce salmonella contamination in poultry by the end of this year.
Poultry producers aren't the only ones that need to improve safety standards, Vilsack said. Beef producers need to do a better job in keeping E. coli out of their products.
"We know that E. coli effects and impacts over 70,000 Americans each year," he said. "And so today we are announcing FSIS' efforts to improve enforcement in beef facilities across the country."
A big part of that effort, Vilsack said, will be more testing by FSIS inspectors.
