A state leader wants Minnesota to lead by example as the government considers new regulations following the deadly salmonella outbreak.
Senator Amy Klobuchar convened a meeting of health experts and family members of Minnesotans whose deaths were linked to contaminated peanut butter at the University of Minnesota Monday.
Suggestions that emerged include increasing the Food and Drug Administration budget for inspections, improving communication between local and federal levels, and enacting new guidelines for farms and factories processing food products.
Klobuchar is also asking President Obama for a new commissioner for the FDA. And she's suggesting that the federal government use Minnesota's State Department of Health as a model for developing new regulations.
She said, "It's just shameful that someone should die just from eating a piece of toast with peanut butter."
Klobuchar vowed to begin work on new legislation the moment she returns to Washington, DC.
At least nine deaths, including three in Minnesota, and hundreds of illnesses are blamed on the nationwide salmonella outbreak that spurred the recall of 18 hundred different products.
The Georgia peanut processing company blamed for the outbreak has declared bankruptcy.
Print Story
Email to a Friend
