Food Safety Revamp On Its Way, Obama Says

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has ordered the country’s food-safety regulatory agencies to revamp how they work together and to find ways to detect food contamination more quickly after the nationwide salmonella outbreak that had its roots in Georgia.

“I’ve directed both the Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to work to come up with a plan, so that a lot of these different agencies that have some jurisdiction over food safety are integrated in a much more effective way, and [so] things aren’t falling through the cracks,” Obama said in an interview Wednesday at the White House.

Obama also hinted that he’ll soon announce major changes at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that may improve food safety regulations and give the FDA more power to regulate the tobacco industry.

Bills making their way through Congress would give the government more regulatory power over tobacco —- either through the FDA or a new federal agency.

But Obama indicated forthcoming changes also are aimed at preventing another salmonella outbreak like the one traced to Peanut Corp. of America’s Blakely plant in that has sickened more than 660 nationwide and may have led to nine deaths.

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Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution