10/30/2011 - Debbie Frederick hopes that her father's death in
September in one of the most lethal outbreaks of food-borne
illness in U.S. history will force the government to increase
the safety of the country's food supply. It took more than a
decade, a series of deadly outbreaks tied to food like peanuts,
spinach and ground beef, as well as a coalition of strange
bedfellows -- victims, public health advocates and food industry
representatives -- to push through the first major revamp of
food safety laws since the 1930s. But advocates and other
experts say the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) signed by
President Barack Obama in January still has shortcomings and
worry it will be watered down through a lack of funding. The
United States by most measures has some of the safest food in
the world. Still, roughly one in six people get sick from eating
tainted products each year, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. "The whole system was built to react to
people getting sick" or to dis