Children Playing on the Beach (© Chris Johnson | Dreamstime.com)

Gourmet Retailer has reported that, "Approximately 76 million Americans -- one in four -- are sickened by food-borne diseases each year, according to Trust for America's Health (TFAH). Of these, an estimated 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die, costing the United States $44 billion annually."

The unprecedented recall of peanut products and the sometimes fatal consequences for those who were victims of the Salmonella-tainted food have made it clearer than ever that the U.S. needs to develop a healthier and more sustainable food system. Yesterday, President Barack Obama called for a "complete review" of the operations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the wake of the ongoing outbreak.

"The disruption of moving to a government-wide single food safety agency, in a very short period of time, may actually weaken things for a while rather than strengthen them," Dr. Jeffrey Levi, executive director of TFAH, said in an interview. "So our hope is that the first step in the process is creating a separate food safety agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to strengthen systems that are already in place."

Children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems are at the greatest risk from tainted food. TFAH released a comprehensive report identifying major gaps in the country's food safety system, including obsolete laws, misallocation of resources, and inconsistencies among major food safety agencies.

The full report can be found at: Fixing Food Safety: Protecting America's Food Supply from Farm-to-Fork in 2008