The Obama administration made its first move towards overhauling the country’s food safety regulations that have drawn fire for a number of food recalls and food related outbreaks.

The new regulations ordered included naming a new food watchdog at the Food and Drug Administration, new regulations to try to curb the spread of salmonella in eggs, as well as poultry and curbing E. coli in beef. The new proposals emphasis prevention, enforcement and improving the government's response time to incidents.

At a White House news conference Vice President Biden joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said "There are few responsibilities more basic or more important for the government than making sure the food our families eat is safe. American families have enough to worry about today. They should not have [food safety] as a concern."

Food related outbreaks have plagued the country with outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli being reported from a variety of produce ranging from peanuts, tomatoes, peppers, beef to the most recent cookie dough.

Part of the problem say experts is the complicated functioning of the federal agencies involved in the task. There are as many as fifteen agencies involved in the process where the division of work is confusing to say the least. 

In the new proposals to control salmonella, a bacterium that causes more than 1 million illnesses each year in the United States, all egg producers with more than 3,000 laying hens, which comprise a majority of eggs consumed by Americans, will be required to buy chicks from suppliers who monitor for salmonella bacteria.

Additionally producers will be required to test their poultry houses regularly for salmonella, control pests and rodents and take steps to guard against bioterrorism threats. Eggs are to be refrigerated at 45 degrees Fahrenheit no later than 36 hours after the eggs are laid, during shipment and must be refrigerated by wholesalers and retail stores as well. 

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said these measures will reduce the number of related food-borne illnesses by an estimated 79,000 a year or about 60 percent. The new requirements will cost producers about $81 million a year, and add about 1 cent to the cost of a dozen eggs.

Sebelius said it will save the nation about $1.4 billion a year in medical expenses.

Additionally the Department of Agriculture responsible for regulating most meat production is to develop new standards by the end of the year to reduce salmonella in turkey and poultry. Beef inspections to reduce the danger of E. coli, particularly in ground beef, are being stepped up.

The FDA will issue draft guidelines for producers to reduce the risk of contamination to tomatoes, melons and leafy greens, along with developing a new tracing system to make it easier to determine the source of a food outbreak.

Michael R. Taylor, a professor at George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services who has done extensive work on food safety issues, will become a senior advisor to the agency commissioner. The FDA will hire a deputy commissioner for foods, and FSIS will hire a new chief medical officer, who will report to USDA's undersecretary for food safety.

The administration plans to create a new "unified incident command system" to coordinate a government response to future outbreaks of food-borne illness.

"Our goal is to overhaul the system so that we can get better at both stopping food-safety problems before they happen, and, almost equally as important, moving quickly -- much more quickly -- to deal with them when they do," Vice President Joe Biden said in announcing the steps. "They're just the first steps of many."