Investigator: FDA still taking months to recall tainted food

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials failed to force a recall of peanut butter and almond products for three months after advanced DNA testing confirmed salmonella contamination, government investigators reported Thursday.

Despite new legal powers to compel recalls and sophisticated technology to fingerprint pathogens, the Food and Drug Administration allowed some food-safety investigations to drag on, placing consumers in jeopardy of death or serious illness, according to the inspector general's office at the Department of Health and Human Services.

In an unusual urgent warning called an "early alert," the internal watchdog said the FDA needs to pay "immediate attention" to the problem and follow clear procedures to get manufacturers to promptly recall tainted foods.

Food safety has long been a weakness for the FDA, an agency thinly stretched to oversee about 80 percent of the nation's food supply, including seafood, dairy, fruits and vegetables.

[...] the government rolled out whole genome sequencing — precise DNA mapping — to link bugs from people who got sick with samples from products or manufacturing facilities.

Salmonella is a bacterial illness that can cause serious and potentially fatal infections in young children, older adults, and people with compromised immune systems.