With food-borne illnesses and subsequent recalls now becoming more frequent, you'd think Congress would be anxious to pass legislation to safeguard us from unhealthy food. Over 300,000 people went to hospital last year with food poisoning. We all, including our new President, blamed the previous President for having weakened the powers of the FDA, and he promised to give it more teeth.

But the Food Safety Enhancement Act just developed by a House subcommittee doesn't seem to have pushed for much change. It had promised to establish a system to track the source of ingredients in processed foods. But now it's only saying the issue must be studied.

It's because so much of our food now comes from different places around the world with different standards of food safety that we need legislative protection. When salmonella in salsa last year gave more than 1,300 people food poisoning, it was almost impossible to discover which particular source supplying which particular ingredient in it had caused the sickness.

The part of the legislation that calls for a proper tracking system has been removed from the proposed Food Safety Enhancement Act. And when the bill proposes funding the FDA for more frequent inspections, that means once every four years instead of the current once every 10. Bon appetit. Be reassured, though. Foods considered at most risk for contamination can be inspected once every 18 months. It turns eating into a foodie version of Russian roulette. Meanwhile, responsibility for food safety will continue to be shared by different agencies, instead of being consolidated under one department singly funded. While the Department of Agriculture gets 80 percent of food safety funding, it's only responsible for overseeing the safety of just 20 percent of it.