Salmonella traced to a peanut plant has killed nine people and sickened hundreds, putting the system that safeguards the nation’s food supply in the spotlight again. The jumble of agencies and regulations has long been criticized. But now the idea of streamlining it has support in the president’s Cabinet.
When President Obama was asked about the safety of peanut butter during an appearance on NBC’s Today show earlier this month, he expressed the concerns likely shared by families across the nation: “At bare minimum, we should be able to count on our government keeping our kids safe when they eat peanut butter.”
The peanut butter outbreak shows that when it comes to food safety, the government infrastructure is clearly failing, according to Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of the food safety program at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
“Food safety is regulated by about a dozen federal agencies implementing about 35 laws,” she said. “It’s filled with gaps and cracks and failures to fully cover the problems that we’re seeing in the food supply today.”
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