NEW YORK (voa) – The head of the World Health Organization says food-borne disease is increasing and calls for a global improvement in food safety systems.
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland spoke Monday at the first-ever Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators in Marrakech, Morocco.
Dr. Brundtland told the opening session that food safety systems are not keeping up with new microbiological hazards in many countries.
He urged delegates to develop new evidence-based strategies that lower the risk of disease in the entire food production chain, from farmers to consumers.
The WHO says diarrhea from contaminated food kills more than two million people each year, most of them children.
Three hundred delegates from 120 countries are attending the conference, which lasts through Wednesday.
Last week a European Union committee recommended suspending some Chinese meat and seafood imports because they may be contaminated with antibiotic drug residue.
