Nuts

Over the past few weeks, my emailbox has been pummeled by the FDA announcing an endless stream of peanut-product recalls. And sure enough, it has become big news.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette...

"As of Sunday, the Food and Drug Administration had listed nearly 1,850 separate products that had been recalled, from cookies and crackers to granola bars and ice cream.

"...in the present outbreak, it has sickened 600 people around the nation, including 17 in Pennsylvania, and may have killed eight."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09042/948267-84.stm

From Reuters...

"The salmonella outbreak traced to a Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Georgia, has sickened at least 600 people, more than half of them children, and may have killed nine people.

"It has forced one of the biggest food recalls in U.S. history, scared Americans away from one of their favorite foods and brought the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under intense scrutiny."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN1141386520090211

The FDA seems to have a mission with no bounds. How does a governmental agency with its finite resources police the food supply proactively?