Toxic food killed tens of thousands in China in 2015

BEIJING: Adulterated food caused tens of thousands of deaths in China in 2015, a government report has said, putting the resultant economic loss at more than $750

BEIJING: Adulterated food caused tens of thousands of deaths in China in 2015, a government report has said, putting the resultant economic loss at more than $750 million.

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Millions of people of in China are exposed to food that is toxic because of large-scale soil and water pollution, and there is rampant use of fertiliser in agriculture, said the report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), one of the country’s top research institutions.

“At least two million acres of farmland across China have been contaminated. Eighty percent of pesticide goes directly into the soil, which poses a direct threat to the vegetables and crops people eat every day,” China Central Television (CCTV), the national broadcaster, quoted the report as saying.

“The academy said China accounts for 35% of global use of chemical fertiliser every year, with the country using as much as the US and India combined,” it added.

The full report is yet to be published but the synopsis gave enough indications about the dangerous levels of food adulteration that Chinese citizens have to deal with. China has more than 11.85 million food businesses with licenses, and monitoring them is a tough task.