WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, Vice Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, today offered the following comments with the news that another outbreak of E. Coli in beef has occurred:

“The first order of business is to determine where these products have been distributed in order to get them off store shelves quickly,” said DeGette.  “Unfortunately, our ability to react to food emergencies have been compromised by a lack of investment in food safety by both the private and public sectors.  We need a robust system that will quickly identify the source of the contamination and remove it from our stores. How many outbreaks and how many sick people will it take until we finally reform our outdated food safety laws?”