Each year, about 1 in 6 Americans suffers from a foodborne illness like salmonella or E. coli. These sicknesses—recently linked to peanuts, lettuce, cantaloupe, spinach, and peppers—kill about 3,000 people every year. New rules bring good news for U.S. consumers, who will now have added protection against the outbreaks of such illnesses caused by the foods they put in their mouths.

The new food safety rules from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) focus on preventing food contamination rather than providing processes to track outbreaks. They include:

Food makers: The new rules outline prevention standards for all makers of food that will be sold in the U.S., regardless whether it’s made inside or outside U.S. borders. The rules also cover how food makers will react to and resolve any foodborne illness problems that do occur.

Farms: The new rules include standard safety and quality requirements for farms that produce and harvest produce sold in the U.S. Farms will also be required to meet safety standards for the quality of the water they use on their crops.

The Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law two years ago in January 2011. Still forthcoming from the FDA are standards for safe transport of food as well as standards for preventing intentional contamination of food.