Food Safety Bill Is Ready For President Obama’s Signature

After long delays and a lot of legislative wrangling, the U.S. Congress has passed and sent to the White House the first major food safety reform legislation in nearly eight decades. President Obama is expected to sign the measure this week. The bill was finally passed by the Senate and the House after problems related to funding were at least temporarily resolved. The bill gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to order recalls of tainted products and beef up the federal inspector force by 2,000. The update of the nation’s system for protecting consumers from spoiled foods was prompted by several recent contaminated food scares. Discovery of salmonella  prompted the recall of more than half a billion eggs.