Editing by Russell Blinch and David Gregorio U

Rosa DeLauro and Assistant Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, have advocated major changes.DeLauro, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, plans to reintroduce legislation to give FDA mandatory recall authority, implement traceability requirements and make a separate agency for food safety responsibilities within the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is part of HHS.She said "prospects are better" for a bill to pass this year."What we need to do is begin to put the pieces in place It will not happen overnight," said DeLauro. "We have seen such a tremendous collapsing of our food safety abilities that I think people are looking to make sure that the future is different."Eight deaths may be linked to the latest salmonella outbreak involving peanut butter, and more than 500 people have become ill in the latest mysterious infection to rock the U.S. food industry.The salmonella outbreak, which began in September, had all the hallmarks of past scares involving peppers, pot pies, spinach and another case of peanut butter.Health authorities warned consumers in mid-January to lay off the peanut butter, and companies such as General Mills Incand Kellogg Co recalled cookies, pet food and other products.The salmonella has been traced to a Georgia supplier of peanut butter products to manufacturers and institutions. The outbreak sparked outrage from consumer groups and prompted lawmakers to call for a modernized food safety system focusing more on prevention rather than reaction.The FDA, responsible for protecting 80 percent of the food supply, has been criticized for being too passive particularly in handling the surge in imports and growing demand for fresh produce."There is a structure at FDA that really makes the food safety program fragmented and sort of buried in bureaucracy and not able to lead the transformation that Congress is about to order it to lead," said Michael Taylor, a professor of health policy at George Washington University.(Editing by Russell Blinch and David Gregorio) U.S. Health.

(Adds quotes, reaction from Peanut Corp, Starbucks) Stocks Regulatory News By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A peanut plant in Georgiaidentified as the source of an outbreak of salmonella shippedout products that managers knew might have been tainted, U.S.Food and Drug Administration officials said on Tuesday An FDA inspection of the Peanut Corp. of America plant inBlakely, Georgia, also found at least two strains of salmonellabacteria at the plant, although they were strains that have notbeen associated with the current outbreak, the officials said. More than 500 people in 43 states and Canada have beensickened in the outbreak, which also may be linked with eightdeaths, according to the U.S Centers for Disease Control andPrevention More than half of those made ill are children. andreleased the products," the FDA's Michael Rogers told reportersin a telephone briefing.

Records at the plant showed that after the company testedthe peanut products and found salmonella, it sent at least someto an outside lab that showed no contamination. The productswere then illegally shipped for sale, Rogers said. "There (were) no steps taken (by) the firm as far ascleaning or to minimize cross-contamination," Rogers said. Details of precisely what the FDA found will be released onWednesday, he added Peanut Corp.