William K. Hubbard, former FDA associate commissioner, said the portion of the budget devoted to food safety has fallen from 50 percent in the early 1970s to about 25 percent today, with money being shifted from food into the agency’s oversight of drug and medical devices. The number of FDA food inspectors declined from 2,200 in 2003 to 1,962 in 2006.

According to the FDA, 35 percent of the fresh fruit and vegetables sold in the U.S. are imported today, yet only 1 percent of imported produce is inspected—and only a small part of that is checked for bacterial contamination. Meanwhile, the amount of imported horticulture products increased by 145 percent in the last decade, up to $27 billion in 2005 from just $11 billion in 1995, according to government statistics.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition advocacy group, reports that the number of food-borne illnesses linked to produce doubled from 1998 to 2004. Caroline Smith DeWaal, the Center’s director of food safety, said fresh or raw produce accounts for more people ill in outbreaks than any other food product.

“Recent events have clearly put the fresh produce industry in the cross hairs of policymakers,” said Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety. “It is important that policy changes be driven by facts and well-founded findings rather than hysteria.”