In recent years, Chinese officials have come under intense public and international pressure to intensify efforts to ensure safer food, after melamine-tainted milk products from the 2008 scandal in which six babies died and 300,000 babies fell ill, re-emerged in several stores around the country.
This tragedy brought the issue of food safety under the world spotlight. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that foodborne diseases and threats to food safety constitute a growing public health problem. Unsafe food is the cause of many acute and lifelong diseases, ranging from diarrhoeal diseases to various forms of cancer. WHO estimates that foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases taken together kill about 2.2 million people annually, 1.9 million of them children.
Many world governments, particularly those in developed countries, have established dedicated official bodies to develop, monitor and enforce food safety directives and regulations.
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