President Barack Obama has said the US food safety system is a “public health hazard” and in need of an overhaul.
He sounded the warning during his weekly radio and video address, as he appointed a new head of the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
New York Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg has been named for the post.
Mr Obama cited a string of recent food safety scandals including a salmonella outbreak in peanut products this year that has been linked to nine deaths.
The president said recent underfunding and understaffing at the FDA had left the agency unable to conduct annual inspections of more than a fraction of America’s 150,000 food processing premises.
“That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr Margaret Hamburg,” Mr Obama pledged.
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