New Delhi:A study by the World Bank and the Netherlands with India Government collaborations revealed that food borne diseases cost India about Rs1,78,100 crore ($28 billion) or around 0.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) every year.
The estimate of Rs1,78,100 crore is more than three times the health ministry's initially allocated expenditure budget of Rs 48,353 crore for 2017-18.
The report was presented at a two-day round-table meeting, which was organized by the country’s food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and chaired by union health and family welfare minister JagatPrakashNadda.
An estimated 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people in the world – fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420 000 die every year, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years (DALYs).
Children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 1,25,000 deaths every year.Diarrhoeal diseases are the most common illnesses resulting from the consumption of contaminated food, causing 550 million people to fall ill and 2,30,000 deaths every year.
What is the government going to do about it?
State health Ministers from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Puducherry, Jharkhand and Delhi agreed to support development of robust food standards and codes of practice for safe food, create a positive regulatory environment, establish a credible and robust national food testing system and address micronutrient deficiencies through government schemes and by promoting healthy dietary habits.
The state health ministers also agreed to build “culture of self-compliance amongst food businesses”. The ministers have also assured to focus on third-party audits, make enforcement transparent, standardized, predictable and fair by adopting digital compliance platform.
The Ministers also decided to promote organic food and dietary diversification to integrate local and regional cuisines.It was further decided that efforts would be made to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables, at least 450-500 gm/day, and moderate the intake of refined carbohydrates.
Meanwhile, the State health Ministers decided to launch a campaign, with special focus on youth and school children, for limiting energy intake from fatty food.
The campaign aims to get people to reduce their daily caloric intake from fatty foods to less than 30% and eliminate trans-fats completely (i.e., bring down consumption of trans-fat to less than 1% of total caloric intake, reducing salt consumption to less than 5 gm per day and limiting intake of free added sugar to less than 10% of daily caloric intake) by 2022.
Need for ensuring a strong food regulatory program
“If no investments in food safety are made, there could be an adverse impact with potentially large costs due to increase in poverty and under-nutrition,” said Delia Grace, program manager of the study.
Ensuring safe food, said Grace, will eventually reduce child mortality. According to her, India should improve its food safety policy through coordination across the value chain, develop key infrastructure, such as cold chains, storage facilities, better testing capacity, crop protection, and animal health to improve food safety.
India needs to strengthen training and education across all levels of the value chain, ensure “faster collaboration” between governments, producers and consumers and embed food safety in nutrition programs (government schemes).
Mr. Nadda said that the Centre is providing support to the tune of 482 crore to the States and as many as 45 labs are to be strengthened for greater food safety.
“We must safeguard public health by ensuring all food businesses are licensed and follow standards. At the same time, we should be careful that it does not put unnecessary regulatory burden on businesses,” noted the Minister.
“The focus should shift from disease-centric treatment to preventive and promotive healthcare,” Mr.Nadda added.
What are the different “Food Borne” diseases that India is susceptible too?
Grace said the estimate takes into account two broad categories of illnesses - the most common ones such as diarrhea or other gastrointestinal disturbances and relatively rare conditions such as neurocysticercosis, or tapeworm infection of the brain that can cause seizures.
The analysis has suggested that richer households across the country appear more vulnerable to food-borne diseases because of their higher consumption of meat, fruit and vegetables.
Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health.Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances, causes more than 200 diseases – ranging from diarrhoea to cancers.
Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli are among the most common foodborne pathogens that affect millions of people annually – sometimes with severe and fatal outcomes.
Symptoms are fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Examples of foods involved in outbreaks of salmonellosis are eggs, poultry and other products of animal origin.
Foodborne cases with Campylobacter are mainly caused by raw milk, raw or undercooked poultry and drinking water. Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli is associated with unpasteurized milk, undercooked meat and fresh fruits and vegetables.
Listeria infection leads to unplanned abortions in pregnant women or death of newborn babies. Although disease occurrence is relatively low, listeria’s severe and sometimes fatal health consequences, particularly among infants, children and the elderly, count them among the most serious foodborne infections. Listeria is found in unpasteurised dairy products and various ready-to-eat foods and can grow at refrigeration temperatures.
Vibrio cholerae infects people through contaminated water or food. Symptoms include abdominal pain, vomiting and profuse watery diarrhoea, which may lead to severe dehydration and possibly death. Rice, vegetables, millet gruel and various types of seafood have been implicated in cholera outbreaks.
Naturally occurring toxins include mycotoxins, marine biotoxins, cyanogenic glycosides and toxins occurring in poisonous mushrooms. Staple foods like corn or cereals can contain high levels of mycotoxins, such as aflatoxin and ochratoxin, produced by mould on grain. A long-term exposure can affect the immune system and normal development, or cause cancer.
What can consumers do to ensure food safety?
Food can become contaminated at any point of production and distribution, and the primary responsibility lies with food producers.
Food handlers and consumers can do the following things to ensure food safety.
Know the food they use (read labels on food package, make an informed choice, become familiar with common food hazards);
Handle and prepare food safely at home or when selling at restaurants or at local markets;
Grow fruits and vegetables in a safe and hygienic manner to decrease microbial contamination.
Not all food handlers and consumers understand the roles they must play, such as adopting basic hygienic practices when buying, selling and preparing food to protect their health and that of the wider community but this must change in the near future.
References
www.who.int
www.thehindu.com
www.livemint.com