At least 600 million people, or 1 in 10 worldwide, fall ill from contaminated food each year and 420,000 die, many of them young children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday, according to Reuters. Giving its first global estimates of preventable foodborne diseases, a WHO report called on governments and industry to improve inspections and control of the food chain from the fields and farmyard to the factory and the plate. Foodborne diseases - caused by bacteria such as salmonella, viruses, parasites, toxins and chemicals - mostly cause temporary symptoms such as nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting. But they can also cause longer-term illnesses including cancer, kidney or liver failure, brain disorders, epilepsy and arthritis, the United Nations agency said. "The data we are publishing is only a very conservative estimate, we are sure that the real figure is bigger," Dr. Kazuaki Miyagishima, director of WHO's Department of Food Safety, told a news briefing.
