The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services announced that a group chaired by the heads of those two organizations made recommendations regarding food safety. The USDA noted that the group came up with three main principles for food safety, which include making prevention a priority, while improving inspection, enforcement and response.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is proud of the job done by the group, which he led with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
"There is no more basic role for government than ensuring safe food and completing the Food Safety Working Group's executive actions is an important step in strengthening the U.S. food safety system."
Among some of the changes that have occurred include a new testing program for beef that looks for E. coli. The departments are also examining ways to measure the progress of food safety measures.
The USDA is also working with the Justice Department in order to ensure competition is fair within agricultural markets.
