Obama praises food safety bill

President Obama this evening lauded the House for passing a sweeping food safety bill designed to prevent repeats of the wide outbreak of salmonella in peanuts that killed at least nine Americans.

The legislation approved today over objections from some farm-state lawmakers would require more government inspections of manufacturers, give the Food and Drug Administration new powers to order recalls, and require the FDA to develop a system for better tracing food-borne illnesses.

"This action represents a major step forward in modernizing our food safety system and protecting Americans from foodborne illness," Obama said in a statement. "Those are the goals of the Food Safety Working Group I convened in March and charged with making recommendations to improve our food safety system. And that is why we announced a new rule to control Salmonella contamination in eggs and are working to reduce the presence of harmful pathogens such as E. coli in meat and produce; strengthen our capacity to trace the source of outbreaks; and update our emergency operations procedures.

"I commend the House of Representatives for its action today and look forward to working with the Senate to enact critical food safety legislation.”