A new government report shows an alarming weakness in the Food and Drug Administration’s food inspection program, which oversees over 80% of the U.S. food supply.

More than half of food manufacturing plants haven’t seen an inspection for five years while the FDA overall inspects less than a quarter of U.S. food facilities each year. With 51,000+ facilities the FDA regulates it could seem daunting. But with the breakdown in the system the U.S. is shouldering $152 billion in health related expenses due to contaminated food.

The Peanut Corporation of America plant is a prime example. The facility had gone for years without an inspection before a salmonella outbreak reached 44 states, sickened 650 people, and led to eight deaths. Its inspections previous to this showed no record of follow-ups to assure violations were corrected. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, food illnesses sicken one in four Americans. Tainted food has cost the food industry billions of dollars in recalls, lost sales and legal expenses.

The FDA finds itself tied in plenty of bureaucratic red tape when it comes to access to food producing facilities. With its limited power to enforce its own regulations, the FDA faces facilities refusing access to their food records with almost complete impunity.

Of the facilities with the most serious food safety infractions the FDA can assign an ambiguously named Official Action Indicated (OAI) classification. Naturally this is issued to ensure the stated violations are fixed. But the report found that no further action was taken against 25% of facilities receiving an OAI classification. Not very reassuring.

One thing that isn’t included in the conversation enough is strengthening the rights of workers. Regardless of their immigration status, food industry workers are our first defense against dangerous food, and the lack of real immigration reform is undermining the workforce in American food plants. Ironically, this report illustrates that the federal government had time to do immigration raids on food facilities, but not to inspect them. With 5,000 food related deaths per year and millions of illnesses, this is unacceptable.

With a food safety bill unanimously passed by a Senate committee last November, it now awaits approval in the Senate. The House passed a similar bill in July, which gave sweeping new powers to the FDA.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is urging that a food safety bill be passed quickly in the Senate:

“This new report shows what we have feared for too long: that that our domestic food facilities are not being adequately inspected and FDA needs additional authorities to keep the food on our tables safe,” said Harkin in a statement issues yesterday. “This is unacceptable in our modern society and an important reminder that we must provide FDA with the needed tools to properly inspect food facilities and effectively react to problems in order to ensure the safety of the food American families eat. Quite simply, picking up food at the grocery store should not be a health risk.”

Unfortunately, it hasn’t exactly been moving at the speed of lightening. Among other things the bill would step up inspections for all food facilities and increase the enforcement power of the FDA to be able to force recalls rather than work cooperatively with the food manufacturer – which yes, hopefully won’t be trading one set of problems for another. Considering food safety laws haven’t changed significantly since 1938 this is sorely needed.