Food safety improvements slow in coming

Food safety improvements slow in coming

ATLANTA, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Efforts to improve the safety of peanut butter after a major food-borne illness outbreak are moving slowly, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday.

The newspaper said promises by the state of Georgia and the U.S. government to crack down on food safety mostly remain unfulfilled, with new food testing regulations passed by the Gerogia Legislature still mainly not implemented.

Federal efforts to cut down on food-borne illnesses via food safety legislation are stuck Congress and have been supplanted by healthcare reform efforts, the report said.

The Journal-Constituted also said no criminal charges have been filed against the owners of the bankrupt Peanut Corp. of America plant where officials say contaminated peanut butter was put into products that sickened 700 people and has been linked to nine deaths nationwide.

"Nothing's happened," Minnesota resident Jeff Almer, whose mother, Shirley, died from eating contaminated peanut butter traced to Peanut Corp., told the newspaper. "It's very frustrating."

"It could peter out," added Tony Corbo of the non-profit consumer advocacy group Food and Water Watch. "This has gotten off the radar."