Families frustrated by the lack of progress on national food safety laws wrote a letter to the White House urging President Barack Obama to enforce safety rules.
The Make Our Food Safe Coalition, which includes families of food-borne illness victims, consumer advocates and health organizations, say they want to see progress. The coalition points to the ten multistate outbreaks of food-borne illnesses in the past year.
They argue that had the Food Safety Modernization Act from January 2011 been enforced, outbreaks like the listeria-tainted cantaloupe would not have happened.
Some blame the upcoming presidential election for the delay -- any law that could be considered "job killing" will be stifled until after the election.
The coalition has released an ad in the New York Times and a video featuring parents of a victim of the 2006 E.coli spinach outbreak.