As the criminal investigation continues, lawmakers have introduced a variety of reforms, from simply bolstering the FDA with more money and tougher laws to the more sweeping move of combining the food safety functions currently divided among the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control into a new agency charged with oversight of the entire food supply.
Adding to calls for reform have been members of the food industry itself. Amid costly recalls of products as disparate as beef, spinach, jalapeno peppers and pet food, organizations such as Kraft Foods and PepsiCo Inc. have joined with food safety advocates and several former FDA commissioners to demand stronger regulation.
They have a strong business incentive. While Peanut Corp. of America made only about 1 percent of the peanut products sold nationwide, retail sales of all peanut butter fell 22 percent in January, according to the Nielsen Co. The makers of Jif and Peter Pan, not implicated in the current outbreak, have embarked on advertising campaigns to persuade customers that their brands are safe.
"Recent events have undermined the confidence of our consumers," said Scott Faber, chief lobbyist for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. "Frankly, in order to continually improve the safety of our food supplies, we need a strong and effective partner" in government.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, whose department is responsible for monitoring meat and poultry, caught advocates by surprise this month when he advocated merging food safety functions into a single agency. His comments came days after President Barack Obama said the government had been slow to identify food contamination.
"I think that the FDA has not been able to catch some of these things as quickly as I expect them to," Obama said an interview broadcast by NBC on Today. He said his daughter Sasha ate peanut butter several times a week - "and, you know, I don't want to have to worry about whether she's going to get sick as a consequence to having her lunch."
Obama's interest in the issue predates the current outbreak. Campaigning last summer during a different salmonella outbreak - the one that led to the jalapeno recall - the then-senator introduced legislation intended to improve communication and coordination among federal, state and local agencies.
Since the current outbreak, the White House has promised what spokesman Robert Gibbs called a "stricter regulatory structure."
