Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn. – 3) issued the following statement on the announcement by the White House of the key findings of the Food Safety Working Group.

“Today, the Administration announced several concrete proposals that take preliminary steps toward achieving critical food safety goals and protecting the public health.

“Now the working group must continue their efforts and issue recommendations that recognize the need to restructure the food safety regulatory system, provide strong enforceable performance standards that prevent food-borne illness, and require more frequent inspections of high-risk facilities.

“One item that I was particularly pleased to see and is a very positive step, is the creation of new positions – the deputy commissioner in charge of food safety and Chief Medical Officer at the FDA and the Food Safety Inspection Service at the Department of Agriculture, respectively. I have repeatedly made the point that our ability to protect public health is hindered by not having a single person in charge of food safety activities in the federal government. ”