Seven separate rules will be designed to shift the national food safety net from a system geared to respond to illness outbreaks to one designed to prevent them.

Anyone with a Twitter account can now be among the first to know about food recalls with a new service the Department of Agriculture is rolling out.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued instructions to its inspection program personnel in an effort to protect vulnerable consumers after an increased number of products have been recalled in the first half of 2011 due to the presence of undeclared allergens or other ingredients.

The FDA is making it easier for consumers to access information about recently recalled products on its website.