After a string of food borne illnesses and deaths that the FDA says it was powerless to prevent lawmakers are pushing for single oversight of the nation's food supply. A bill has been introduced in Congress titled the Food Safety Act of 2007. It would create a single entity to make sure that food was free of all forms of contamination.

The nation has experienced a spate of food contamination cases. They ranged from E.coli bacteria found in fresh leafy greens, including bagged salads, salmonella bacteria in peanut butter, pets sickened by the plastic melamine in their food and chickens and hogs withheld from market after they were fed some of the tainted pet food

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Thursday a new, nationwide surveillance program to inspect and test food plants that use imported protein ingredients in foods manufactured for human consumption.

Although there is no evidence to indicate that either wheat gluten or rice protein has been used in the processing of human foods, the government is taking a precautionary, preventive measure to be certain

In the investigation following the March 16 pet food recall that sickened or killed domestic pets across the country, the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration found that chicken feed in some farms in Indiana contained byproducts from contaminated wheat gluten imported from China.

The contaminated rice protein and wheat gluten, which is believed to be tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, was allegedly distributed to more than 30 poultry farms across Indiana. The federal agencies also cautioned that other farms in states across the United States could have received contaminated feed, but have stopped short of issuing a recall of poultry products processed by the farms

The Chinese food supply problems continue to mount as more than 50 kindergarteners were poisoned on Thursday from their breakfast at a private school.

The children were hospitalized and doctors believe the poisoning occurred from the soybean milk not being properly boiled

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updates on the current status of the pet food contamination reports there are ongoing investigations, while another related incident has caused a hog farm in California to be quarantined.

The latest discovery of melamine has also been found in the imported rice protein ingredients used in some pet foods that have caused contamination to pets consuming these foods. Previously the contamination was found in imported wheat gluten