Our food safety laws are outdated and full of loopholes.

We rarely inspect most food processing plants, and far less frequently on average than we inspect our local restaurants. We do little to prevent food-borne illness, and spend billions on too-little-too-late recall efforts. Recalls are voluntary, even when food is clearly making people sick. Most consumers never even hear about them.

Give food safety laws a much-needed update. Instead of spending time and taxpayer money chasing bad food off the market, the new law would focus on prevention:

• Companies making high-risk food would be required to turn over to the FDA any results showing contamination in their products;
• Companies would have to develop and adhere to methods for keeping their food as safe as possible;
• High-risk facilities would be inspected at least once every year; and
• Food recalls would be mandatory, not voluntary

As The Washington Post editorialized Sunday: “All of these provisions (in the House bill) make sense. What's needed is action in the Senate. We understand that its docket is full, but leaders must find a way to make passage a priority before the next food-borne outbreak demonstrates anew how ill-equipped government is to respond.”