Hopefully this will lead to fewer listeria and E. coli outbreaks. The Food and Drug Administration proposed the most sweeping (and long-awaited) food-safety rules in decades Friday—two years after the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act. The new regulations will require farmers to take new precautions against contamination, so that the organization can prevent contaminated food from hitting grocery shelves, and potentially reduce the estimated 3,000 deaths a year linked to food-borne illness. The FDA is responsible for roughly 80 percent of the food the nation consumes, while the Department of Agriculture is held accountable for contaminated meat, poultry, and some eggs.
