WASHINGTON - The Obama administration took its first step yesterday toward overhauling food-safety regulations that have been blamed for a steady stream of outbreaks and recalls.

The new proposals, recommended by a working group that President Obama created in March, emphasize prevention, enforcement, and improving the response time to food-safety outbreaks.

"There are few responsibilities more basic or more important for the government than making sure the food our families eat is safe," Vice President Biden said at a White House news conference, where he was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "American families have enough to worry about today. They should not have [food safety] as a concern."

Fears about food safety have been spurred by a series of salmonella and E. coli outbreaks in products as varied as peanuts, spinach, tomatoes, pistachios, peppers, and, most recently, cookie dough.

Fifteen federal agencies oversee food inspections in a complex and sometimes bizarre division of labor: The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for produce, while the Department of Agriculture is responsible for meat. As a result, cheese pizzas are inspected by the FDA while pepperoni pies go to the USDA.

The administration outlined yesterday a variety of measures to prevent the spread of salmonella, a bacterium that causes more than one million illnesses each year.

Among them is a final rule, issued by the FDA, to reduce contamination in eggs. About 142,000 Americans are infected each year with Salmonella enteritidis from eggs, the result of an infected hen passing along the bacterium. About 30 people die.

The FDA will require that egg producers test regularly for salmonella and buy chicks from suppliers who do the same. Eggs, which now must be refrigerated by wholesalers and retail stores, will have to be refrigerated on the farm and during shipment, as well. About half the egg industry is following similar guidelines voluntarily.

The agency estimates that will help reduce the number of related foodborne illnesses by 79,000 a year, or about 60 percent. The new requirements will cost producers about $81 million a year, and add about 1 cent to the cost of a dozen eggs, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said. Sebelius said it would save the nation $1.4 billion a year in medical expenses.

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) also committed to develop new standards by the end of the year to reduce salmonella in turkeys and poultry. The office will also establish a salmonella verification program, with the hopes that 90 percent of poultry establishments will meet the new standards by the end of 2010.

Both agencies announced plans to tackle E. coli.

FSIS will step up enforcement at meat-processing plants and increase sampling that tests for the pathogen especially in ground beef. By the end of the month, the FDA, which is responsible for fresh produce, will issue guidance on ways to reduce contamination in the production and distribution of tomatoes, melons, and leafy greens.

The proposals also included adding staff positions to help agencies coordinate with one another. The FDA will hire a deputy commissioner for foods; FSIS will hire a new chief medical officer.

Many key changes will be left to Congress, including the issue of giving federal agencies authority to recall tainted products if a manufacturer refuses.