Following recalls of tainted spinach, peanut butter and pet food, the second-ranking Senate Democrat will seek to bolster Food and Drug Administration food safety operations.

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin plans to offer an amendment on the Senate floor next week that may include language permitting the FDA to order mandatory recalls of tainted food products and fine companies that don’t promptly report spoiled food, according to an aide.

The Illinois Democrat’s plan to amend the FDA reauthorization bill (S 1082), which is scheduled for Senate debate next week, is part of a renewed push in Congress to strengthen food safety enforcement.

In the House, Connecticut Democrat Rosa DeLauro, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that determines spending for the FDA, said she is poised to cut off salaries for the agency’s top managers in the fiscal 2008 spending bill unless officials report immediately how they will improve food inspections, recalls and standards.

“Our food safety system is collapsing, and the very agency in charge is asleep,” said DeLauro, who explained that her spending bill will spell out the FDA food safety activities that will be supported with funding next year.

Durbin and DeLauro for years have pushed to consolidate the government’s food safety functions, which are now shared by numerous agencies, including FDA, the Agriculture Department and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Durbin has introduced legislation (S 654) that would combine the food safety operations into a single agency. The amendment he plans to offer next week would be a pared-down version of his bill, focusing specifically on FDA problems, an aide said.

The FDA currently has no authority to order food recalls, but must rely on the industry to voluntarily pull products from the shelves. Still, the agency has drawn criticism for lackluster enforcement of the authority it does have, especially after the recent scares about tainted pet food, peanut butter and fresh spinach.

Citing government documents, the Washington Post reported this week that the FDA knew years ago about contamination problems at a peanut butter plant and the spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks last year.

To address recent pet-food recalls, the agency announced this week that it would test some products containing Chinese vegetable protein for the harmful compound melamine. The compound, which is used in glue and fertilizers, has been linked to the deaths of cats and dogs last month.

The problems with food safety have raised growing concern in Congress in recent weeks.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee heard testimony earlier this week from the food industry, and Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, called for an audit of the nation’s food safety system.

DeLauro — who has introduced House legislation (HR 1148) similar to Durbin’s bill — said the recalls underscore the need to put a single agency in charge of food safety.

She said there are too many opportunities for inspections to fall through the cracks with 15 different agencies and 35 different laws governing food safety.

Durbin said he still supports the concept of a single agency, but is skeptical that Congress can accomplish it under the current administration.

“You cannot hope to achieve that kind of major change unless the president supports it,” he said.