A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has found that food inspections in America declined by 78 percent since the 1970s even as imports increased.

China has become the largest exporter of seafood to the United States, yet the FDA has rejected nearly 400 shipments of tainted seafood from that country in a year's time.

That occurred even as China agreed late last year to improve the safety of its food exports. The most troubling aspect, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is that only a small percentage of imports are inspected and even fewer are tested.

About one in four Americans is afflicted by food-borne diseases each year, and 85 percent of those illnesses are connected to foods regulated by the FDA, says the Trust for America's Health.

America's food-safety system needs to improve. Congress is rightly planning to do so. The emphasis is on doing a better job of checking foreign imports.

House legislation in the works would give the FDA authority to recall tainted food. It would develop a registry of all food facilities that operate in the United States or ship food here, and would require FDA inspections of those enterprises.

Registration fees for such facilities would help pay for food-safety inspections. Imports would be forbidden at ports that do not have FDA labs.

There is some discussion about whether the FDA should inspect the food itself or contract that out. The answer to this and any other question should be: whatever affordable method best protects the American consumer should be adopted.

Members of Congress now focusing on food safety are to be commended. The inspection system needs to be overhauled and improved.