WASHINGTON - January 29 - "Last night's announcement by the Food and Drug Administration that the recall of products from the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Georgia had been expanded serves as further evidence of FDA's inability to protect consumers from unsafe food. 

"The agency's investigation has revealed that the company knew about Salmonella contamination in its products and shipped them anyway.  Sadly, this type of practice is far too easy under FDA's lax inspection system that consists of infrequent visits, often by subcontracted state agencies with little or no follow-up by FDA.  Given FDA's attitude of asking food processors to police themselves, it should be no surprise that yet another massive food recall is causing consumers to question what is safe to eat. 

"It is time for Congress to fix FDA's broken food safety system.  A bill that will soon be introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the Food Safety Modernization Act, would establish a food safety agency outside of FDA, within the Department of Health and Human Services.  The bill would require this new agency to establish and enforce food safety standards and inspected food processing plants at least once per year.  It would also give the new agency mandatory recall authority to get unsafe food out of the marketplace as quickly as possible and allow civil and criminal actions to be brought against companies that violate the law.  This type of bold step is needed to address the historic deficiencies in FDA's authority, resources, and political will."

To view the FDA inspection report online, visit http://www.fda.gov/ora/frequent/483s/r_ATL-DO_PCA_Blakely_GA_Form_FDA_483_dtd_Jan_09-27_2009.pdf