Vilsack supports single food safety agency

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that one regulatory agency needs to be created dealing exclusively with food safety.

Currently, food safety duties are handled by the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which “handles” meat inspections.

In the last year, both have shown their impotence when it comes to preventing and dealing with food safety issues. Massive recalls and food-borne illness outbreaks have been linked to tainted beef supplies, as well as lettuce, peppers, tomatoes (though incorrectly), and peanuts, to name the major cases.

As the regulatory agencies are stretched thinner by reduced budgets and lessened in strength by lobbyist-backed legislation, their impact has become hardly noticeable, and truly a burden on the American public’s safety.

The FDA clearly cannot control food manufacturers as shown by the pattern of gross negligence shown by Peanut Corporation of American in this most recent salmonella outbreak, and by other corporations when they’ve been found to be selling contaminated products.

Vilsack would like one agency handle all food safety issues, according to a report from Reuters. A bill was introduced in the U.S. House last week that proposed the FDA’s responsibility over fruits, vegetables and processed foods be branched into its own agency.