Med News Today

Food Poisonings Rise in China

Incidence of food poisoning deaths in China showed a dramatic increase last year.

Citing figures from the Ministry of Health, Xinhua News Agency said 258 people were killed last year, up 32 percent from the previous year. The report said that while the number of deaths rose in 2007, overall cases of food poisoning fell to 506, 26 percent less than the previous year.

"Most of the fatal food poisoning incidents were caused by toxic seafood, meat and produce," Xinhua said.

It was not possible to verify whether the figures included all the food poisoning cases in China, a country of 1.3 billion people. Many cases in rural areas, where food is often mislabeled and sanitation problems are common, go unreported or are covered up by local authorities.

posted by nattietodd @ 7:06 AM