Obama charts path on food safety

President Obama on Saturday nominated Margaret Hamburg, former New York City health commissioner, to head the FDA, and announced he is taking new measures to address food safety.

During his weekly radio address, Obama said a lack of funds and staff at FDA in recent years have left the agency with only enough resources to inspect just 7,000 of 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses annually.

"That means roughly 95 percent of them go uninspected," Obama said. "That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable."

Obama said he will request $1 billion to strengthen the food safety system and modernize labs. A portion of that funding will go toward increasing the number of food inspectors, he said.

Besides nominating Hamburg, whose selection had been leaked last week, Obama named Joshua Sharfstein, Baltimore's health commissioner, as FDA's principal deputy commissioner, the agency's second in command.

Both Hamburg and Sharfstein are Harvard Medical School graduates, with Hamburg widely regarded as an expert in food safety, infectious diseases and bio-terrorism. Sharfstein is a former aide to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., on health issues. He also evaluated the FDA for the Obama transition team and had been a candidate for FDA commissioner. While Hamburg's nomination will require Senate confirmation, Sharfstein will be able to start work immediately.

In his radio address, Obama also announced the creation of a Food Safety Working Group.

"This working group will bring together cabinet secretaries and senior officials to advise me on how we can upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century, foster coordination throughout government, and ensure that we are not just designing laws that will keep the American people safe, but enforcing them," he said.