Fly in

I'll be heading to DC tomorrow to cover the immigration fly-in. This will be a key week to push for action, and I'll be eager to get a sense what the reaction from Congress will be.

Rosa DeLauro continues her steady drumbeat on food safety oversight reform. Her latest news release casts a critical eye on USDA's regulation of meat.

Our Collapsing Food Safety System

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) issued the following statement on the possible outbreak of Escherichia coli 0157:H7 (E. Coli) that has been found in 117,500 pounds of beef trim products used to make ground beef at a plant owned by PM Beef Holdings in Minnesota. The trim was shipped to distributors and retail outlets in Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin and health officials have said it appears that tainted ground beef sickened seven people. DeLauro is the chairman of the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee and co-chair of the Congressional Food Safety Caucus.

“While recent focus has been on imported products, this recall reminds us that the holes in our food safety system exist not only at the Food and Drug Administration, but at the Food Safety Inspection Service within the US Department of Agriculture. This recall of 117,500 pounds of beef comes on the heels of nearly 260,000 pounds of beef less than a month ago – more than double what was recalled for all of 2006 – and that doesn’t account for any other recalls this year.

“Our food safety system lacks the mechanisms and processes to minimize food borne illness – both the USDA and the FDA are unable to safeguard the public health. This recall reinforces the importance of improving and restoring confidence in our food supply."