So now we have to be worried about peanut butter treats … and baby formula?  This year, a national salmonella outbreak tied, to the Peanut Corporation of America, has so far claimed eight lives and sickened an estimated 19,000 people in 43 states.  It also triggered a national recall of everything from dog treats to TV dinners.  Combined with last year’s melamine outbreak in China, which did make it into some of our infant formulas, it shows that Americans have reason to be concerned about the safety of food produced in this country and abroad.

So why does this keep happening?  We at keepourfoodsafe.org, and many other organizations, including the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the U.S. Government Accountability Office, have been calling for changes that we feel would dramatically improve food safety in America.  In short, there should be one federal body overseeing food safety.

Today, the job of overseeing food safety is split between numerous agencies.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are the primary players, but a baker’s dozen of other agencies also help divide up food safety oversight.  Clearly, in this case, more isn’t better. 

When oversight is split between agencies in this fashion, it raises questions about coordination of efforts.  For example, some products, like a frozen, pepperoni pizza, fall under both USDA and FDA oversight—one pizza, two U.S. inspection bodies.  The cheese on the pizza has FDA regulatory oversight, and the pepperoni has USDA oversight. And a split system creates added hurdles in keeping food safety inspections balanced.  In a sense, under our current system, the USDA is competing with the FDA for federal food-safety funding, and visa versa.

What’s more, at the FDA, food inspection services are overshadowed by regulation of drugs, which receives the lion’s share of federal budgets for the FDA.  There is little relationship between food inspections and drugs approvals, so it makes perfect sense to split the FDA and create a new agency under the direction of the USDA.

The concept of reorganizing our nation’s food safety systems has allies on Capitol Hill.  Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), one of the Senate’s top Democrats, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have both called for reform of food-inspection service in the past year.  But perhaps this is a change so fundamental that it will require the leadership of the president to get it done.

There are other problems.  The USDA is chronically short of meat inspectors due to a growing shortage of veterinarians.  Currently, it’s estimated that only about 900 of 1,200 of these positions are filled at the USDA.  To make the new food safety administration work properly, it will need a skilled workforce to staff it.  Veterinarians are important players in our food-safety systems.  They inspect meat, keep animals healthy and work at state and federal public health agencies.  Investments in veterinary education will be required to accomplish the goal of improving food safety in America.

It’s important to remember that America does enjoy some of the safest food in the world, but we shouldn’t rest on our laurels when there is such a clear course to improving food safety systems and saving lives.  It’s just common sense—one agency should oversee our nation’s food supply.