Middle-class households are currently at risk because of lax oversight of the food supply, which has allowed tainted foodstuffs like spinach, lettuce, and, most recently, peanut butter to touch off outbreaks of serious illness. Insufficient funding and staff and weak regulation inhibit the Food and Drug Administration’s capacity to protect middle-class consumers. The FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act updates food safety laws to improve the FDA’s supervision of the nation’s food supply. The legislation allows the FDA to order the mandatory recall of food products, requires food facilities to identify hazards and develop plans to prevent them, and specifically enhances oversight of produce. The bill also increases the rigor and frequency of inspections of food facilities based on a plant’s risk profile, strengthens regulation of imported food products, and creates a pilot program to trace outbreaks to their source. The Act boosts funding and staff for food inspection.