Contaminated food sicks 1 million This yearly: official

More than 1 million Thais suffer disease borne

from tinted food a year, local press quoted officialsources as saying Monday.

The Thai government last year announced to set this year as Year of Food Safety in a bid to campaign for food safety in the kingdom with a population of more than 60 million.

Related government agencies and officials were required to keepa close watch over safety of fresh food.

As a result, the food safety of fresh food had increased from 67 percent in March 2003 to 98 percent in March this year, Deputy Public Health Minister Anuthin Chaanveerakul was quoted by newspaper The Nation as saying.

Six dangerous substances -- salbutamol, salicylic acid, borax, formalin, sodium hydrosulfite and pesticide -- had been less used in food industry, he said.

However, salbutamol and pesticide were still found in 6 percentof samples.

Meanwhile, about 74 percent of food-processing factories in thecountry passed the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standard for food production.

The Public Health Ministry in June declared results of a surveyof 10,000 food samples, which showed that 92 percent were uncontaminated but the rest 8 percent could pose a danger to consumers.

Food and water-borne diseases kill more than three people a minute or about 2 million a year around the world, according to a report of the World Health Organization.

Source: Xihua