By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Once again, the safety of the U.S. food supply has been called into question thanks to a massive product recall, with more than 1,500 people reportedly sickened by a salmonella outbreak traced to tainted eggs believed to have originated from two Iowa farms.

Last Friday, an anonymous source informed media that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to inspect all of the country’s largest egg farms under new rules put in place in July to prevent salmonella in shell eggs.

Might the outbreak have been prevented or more promptly contained if a bipartisan bill currently stalled in Congress had been approved earlier this year by D.C. lawmakers and enacted into law? Farm World put that question to Max Gleischman, spokesman for Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), one of six sponsors of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510).

The Act, which could be considered by senators shortly after their Sept. 13 return to Washington, seeks to improve the safety of food in the United States and to better protect consumers and their families from foodborne illnesses.

“It’s fair to say that if this Act had been law at the time of this outbreak, it may not have prevented the contamination, but certainly would have allowed us to catch the contamination and the outbreak much more quickly,” Gleischman responded. “The Act also would have given the FDA the authority for mandatory recall.”

Currently, the FDA’s authority is limited to gathering information about a food safety breach only after people are sickened by contaminated food. The agency’s power over farms is questionable, as the FDA has traditionally focused on food manufacturing facilities.

Proponents of the bill are pointing to the amount of time that elapsed between this salmonella outbreak and subsequent voluntary egg recalls issued by Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, as proof of the need to restructure the nation’s food safety net.

“For far too long, the headlines have told the story of why this measure is so urgently needed: foodborne illness outbreaks, product recalls and Americans sickened over the food they eat. This 100-year-old-plus food safety structure needs to be modernized,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“I am pleased that after a great deal of time and effort from members on both sides of the aisle, we have a strong, bipartisan proposal that will overhaul our current food safety system. I am confident that the remaining details will be worked out and am hopeful that the measure will come to the Senate floor as soon as possible.”

Durbin hopes the measure will be brought to the Senate’s attention before Oct. 8, when it is to take another recess, according to Gleischman. A companion bill to S.510 passed the House last year.

An unnamed Obama administration official told The Associated Press last week that FDA inspectors will visit approximately 600 large egg farms that produce 80 percent of the nation’s eggs before the end of 2011. The source did not address how such an effort would be funded or carried out. Inspectors could begin visiting high-risk facilities as early as this month, the source said.

“Our bill would provide the FDA with more resources and more authority to conduct more frequent inspections, particularly of high-risk facilities,” Gleischman said.

“These are high-risk facilities, so you need FDA checking on them regularly, at least once a year, to make sure they are complying with the regulations,” Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told CBS News. “You can’t produce food at that level without a food safety cop on the beat.”

At press time, some 550 million eggs had been recalled. Thoroughly cooking eggs can kill the bacteria causing salmonella, but health officials are urging consumers to return the eggs instead.