WASHINGTON – Concerned that the nation's food supply could be the next target of terrorists, Congress is considering increasing inspections and giving federal agencies more power to pull tainted food from store shelves.
Food has been used as a weapon once before. In the 1980s, a cult poisoned salad bars in Oregon with salmonella bacteria, sickening 750 people.
Experts say potential terrorist targets now include fruits and vegetables that people eat raw and are subject to little inspection, and cattle that could be infected with the fast-spreading foot-and-mouth disease that is harmless to humans but devastating economically.
``There are clear gaps in food regulation that would certainly give the opportunity for intentionally contaminated food to be shipped widely around the U.S.,'' said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group. ``Food moves quickly and is consumed quickly so in a short amount of time it can cause a significant outbreak.''
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