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WASHINGTON (AP) — A key lawmaker pressed FDA officials Thursday for specific plans to improve food safety, saying the agency's proposals to date don't sound like real change.

"A lot sounds to me like buzzwords from a past administration," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told the Food and Drug Administration's new acting commissioner at a hearing.

Acting Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein presented a 2010 budget proposal calling for a big funding increase and new industry user fees to pay for more food safety inspections. But it was short on specifics.

"A real change, a real change from the past would be a plan on food safety that identified the foods at greatest risk," DeLauro said. She also called for new performance standards, sampling to detect contamination and requirements for industry to report when problems were found.

Sharfstein said he had a similar list of goals.

"The big picture is we really need a new food safety system that's premised on prevention," Sharfstein said, including performance standards where appropriate.

President Barack Obama has appointed a Food Safety Working Group that's now meeting, and Sharfstein told reporters that its proposals, expected soon, would answer many of DeLauro's demands.

Sharfstein promised lawmakers that he and Dr. Margaret Hamburg, who was confirmed as FDA commissioner by the Senate on Monday and is expected to be sworn in next week, would work to restore credibility and morale at FDA.

A series of food and drug safety lapses has hurt the agency's image, including a recent outbreak of salmonella in peanut products blamed for killing at least nine people and sickening nearly 700 others.

"The credibility of FDA is absolutely critical," Sharfstein agreed at one point.

DeLauro also pressed him to focus on the safety of imports from China and other countries, mentioning the international recall that happened last winter after a blood-thinner called heparin from China was found to be contaminated.

Sharfstein said the administration would explore so-called "equivalency" agreements with other countries that would establish that inspections done elsewhere meet U.S. standards.

Sharfstein parried with Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., over pending legislation that would give FDA the authority, for the first time, to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products. The bill has already passed the House, and passed a key Senate committee earlier this week.

Kingston asked whether FDA should be in the business of regulating a deadly substance, since FDA involvement could seem like a stamp of approval.

Sharfstein agreed that was a risk but that it was outweighed by the benefits of allowing FDA more control over marketing and content of tobacco products.

FDA is seeking a 19 percent budget increase from 2009, to $3.2 billion for 2010. Committee Republicans questioned whether such a large increase was justified in light of ballooning government deficits. Sharfstein and FDA budget officials said that after years of lower funding the 2010 amount would bring agency staffing levels to what they were about a decade ago.