A report made public on Friday reveals that the Food and Drug Administration’s capability to protect Americans against food-borne illnesses is hampered by staffing shortages, infrequent inspections and lax enforcement at fresh produce processing plants.

The report was done by the Government Accountability Office. According to it, just only 1 percent of produce imported into the US is inspected. Also combined produce from several sources makes tracing any food contamination nearly impossible.

The investigation was requested by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. And Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. in 2006 after E. coli contamination in bagged spinach killed three people, sickened 200 others and cost the leafy greens industry $86 million.

“This report paints a frightening picture of the FDA’s fresh produce safety efforts. It should serve as a wakeup call to do more to protect the nation’s food supply,” Sen. Boxer told The Associated Press.

FDA inspections, although rare, do not solve the discovered problems, as the FDA relies on the industry to solve them without oversight and follow-up, the report also found. More exactly, it says that 2,002 domestic companies were inspected an average of two times from 2000 through 2007. Though problems were observed in 41 percent of these inspections, FDA frequently relied on firms “to take voluntary corrective action.”Furthermore, GAO found that 92% of samples taken from imports were tested for pesticides rather than pathogens.

The report also includes previously unpublished FDA data which say that from 1996 through 2006 there were at least 96 outbreaks, 10,253 illnesses and 14 deaths linked to fresh produce. The latest outbreak was linked to jalapeno and Serrano peppers grown at two farms in Mexico. The outbreak sickened 1,442 people, hospitalized 286 and was implicated in two deaths between April and August, being the largest outbreak of food-borne illness in the past decade.

On the other hand, FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach defended the agency's efforts.

“We have not been sitting idly by doing nothing with regard to food protection -- quite the contrary. It's a work in progress, and it will continuously go on and continuously improve ... There's much more to come,” he said.