15.jan.07
Agence France Presse
BEIJING -- The Asian Development Bank was cited as warning Monday in a report on its website that tainted food impacts at least 300 million Chinese people a year and could lead to a disease outbreak that exacts a huge social and economic toll, adding, "In recent years, China's actual food safety situation has not led one to be optimistic. The economic and social impact of the production of tainted foods is very large... diseases stemming from food can have a negative social impact and can even influence social stability."
The report said at least 300 million people in China were affected by diseases stemming from tainted food sources every year, but did not elaborate.
Such diseases cost an estimated 36 billion yuan (4.6 billion dollars) to 168 billion yuan a year, or between 0.2 percent and 0.9 percent of GDP in 2005, it said.
Food-related diseases pose a constant threat to consumers and if not addressed could lead to an outbreak with a bigger impact than the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic that struck China in 2002-2003, it said.
Such an outbreak and its knock-on effect on industries like tourism could pose a serious risk to high-profile events like the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"If a large-scale epidemic linked to food explodes in China, the negative impact could be more serious, especially if one considers the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and the Guangzhou Asian Games," the report said.
Tainted foodstuffs could also have a negative impact on China's food export industry, which earned 27.6 billion dollars in 2005, it added.
"China has no basic food safety law and no legal framework to develop a structure to ensure the safety of food," it said.
"The government needs to set up a food safety management interagency structure that is powerful and that places the health of the people and consumers in the top place."
China has nine ministries that independently implement a series of rules and regulations on food safety that are at times overlapping, confusing and contradictory, the report said.