Tainted food kills 420,000 a year - FAO

(ANSA) - Rome, February 12 - Tainted food kills 420,000 people a year, the Food and Agriculture Organization said Tuesday.
    Food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins or chemicals causes more than 600 million people to fall ill and 420, 000 to die worldwide every year, according to a report from the opening session of the First International Food Safety Conference, in Addis Ababa, organized by the African Union (AU), the FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
    Illness linked to unsafe food overloads healthcare systems and damages economies, trade and tourism, the report said. The impact of unsafe food costs low- and middle-income economies around $95 billion in lost productivity each year. Because of these threats, the report said, food safety must be a "paramount goal" at every stage of the food chain, from production to harvest, processing, storage, distribution, preparation and consumption, conference participants stressed. photo: FAO chief José Graziano Da Silva