Groups Call on USDA, FDA to Make Food Safer

The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, calling on the agency to take steps to keep four, antibiotic-resistant, salmonella strains out of the food supply.

The move came on the same day the nonprofit and other groups sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over alleged overuse of antibiotics in animal feed.

The CSPI said that since the salmonella strains are resistant to antibiotics, consumers who develop infections from those strains have a harder time recovering.

"The only thing worse than getting sick from food is being told that no drugs exist to treat your illness," CSPI food safety staff attorney Sarah Klein said in a statement. "And that's what more consumers will hear if these drug-resistant pathogens keep getting into our meat."