Tuesday's announcement from Washington made me chuckle. The Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Richard A. Raymond said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is going to try harder to protect us from E. coli contamination by expanding product testing and a quicker response time in recalling infected meat.

I’m not suggesting that Dr. Raymond’s statement isn’t an important step, or necessary; but in the wake of the second largest beef recall in our nation’s history its time for a bit more. According to FSIS there were 5 cases of E. coli recalls in 2005…so far in 2007 there have been 15.

So what’s their plan?

According to the agency, they have already increased testing by 75 percent since July of this year and their key initiatives that are targeted to federally inspected plants that produce raw beef are as follows:

-- Testing and analysis of trim.
-- Verifying control of E. coli O157:H7.
-- New checklist for verifying control.
-- Testing more domestic and imported ground beef components.
-- More rapid recalls.
-- Targeting routine testing.
-- Ensuring safety of imported beef products.

-- and…strengthen communications with public health partners, industry, and consumer representatives, as well as internally with inspection program personnel.

Not enough in my book. In fact, more rhetoric and the same old plan. So, no game.

One of the reasons that we are experiencing these huge recalls is that the factory farm system is broken. Years ago we had multiple suppliers of our foods, and while there were food safety issues, the amount of product that was tainted was just a fraction of today’s recalls. Perhaps there was a couple hundred pounds of product that became infected – but today it's tens of millions of pounds; and in today’s technology-driven communications cycle, there is no excuse for either the manufacturer or the government to not inform the public within minutes, not weeks. It’s amazing how quickly we can find out exactly which drive-thru Britney Spears is ordering a shake and fries at, and get it on the evening news.

Almost five years ago I did a report on TODAY that showed a new type of plastic packaging film for perishable foods that would actually change appearance if bacteria was in the package or if the temperature rose above the safe zone. For obvious reasons these technologies were not embraced by food companies; after all, what would they do with all those tainted packages?

What do you think the USDA and food companies need to do to insure the safety of our foods?