National
Tainted food a major killer across the world: DFTQC
Contaminated food items are one of the major causes of death worldwide, the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) said on Thursday during a programme organised to mark the ninth Food Safety Day.Contaminated food items are one of the major causes of death worldwide, the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) said on Thursday during a programme organised to mark the ninth Food Safety Day.
At the programme, the DFTQC shared the information that more than 400,000 people died worldwide every year due to consumption of contaminated food items. In South Asia, 175,000 people die every year due to foodborne diseases, while 150,000 fall ill, it said.
Speaking at the programme, Minister for Agricultural Development Gauri Shankar Chaudhary said his ministry would work in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to ensure that the people get healthy and nutritious food.
The World Health Organisation’s first ever global estimates of foodborne diseases in 2015 found that children under five years of age accounted for almost one third of deaths.
Almost 1 in 10 people fall ill every year from eating contaminated food and 420,000 die as a result, the WHO found. Children under five years of age are at particularly high risk, with 125,000 children dying from foodborne diseases every year, according to the WHO, which adds: “Diarrhoeal diseases are the most common illnesses resulting from the consumption of contaminated food, causing 550 million people to fall ill and 230,000 deaths every year”.
African and South-East Asia Regions have the highest burden of foodborne diseases.
According to the WHO estimates, the burden of foodborne diseases is caused by 31 agents—bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins and chemicals. As many as 600 million, or almost 1 in 10 people in the world, fall ill every year after consuming contaminated food, the WHO stated in its findings.