The Democrat-led Congress plans to make food safety a top priority, which could include placing all governmental food safety divisions under a single jurisdiction.

“We've just got to go in and have, really, a top to bottom look at what is going on,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) tells Reuters, following highly publicized cases recently of E. coli infections following consumption of Taco Bell products in the Northeast. DeLauro will head up the House Agriculture Appropriations Committee in the 110th Congress.

Despite the recent high-profile cases, USDA says E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella cases have declined 9 to 32% since 1998.