Georgia has largely failed to reduce the number of illnesses caused by food-borne contamination during the past four years, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The Atlanta-based CDC also noted that Georgia had the second-highest rate of salmonella in a 10-state study for 2008, which also included previous years. ‘In Georgia, as in other states, there has been very little evidence of progress in food safety over the past four years, said Dr. Robert Tauxe, a top food safety official at the CDC. Food-safety advocates said the report highlights the need to develop better practices. ‘The CDC has opened the window and revealed that food-borne illness is a far more difficult problem to address than we had thought, said Carol Tucker Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America’s Food Policy Institute. ‘Government and industry have to live up to their roles in assuring our food is safe. Georgia agriculture officials, who oversee food safety, say they have made progress in recent years. Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said the agency has increased the testing of Georgia foods, modernized the testing, and -- in the face of budget constraints -- shifted […]