By Jong-Jin Kim, FAO Assistant Director-General

Asia-Pacific must do better to address poor food safety standards

Each year, hundreds of millions of people are sickened by eating unsafe food. Here, in the Asia-Pacific region, the situation can also be deadly. According to the latest figures, gathered just prior to the global pandemic, some 225,000 people die each year from foodborne illnesses in Asia and the Pacific. That’s more than half of the global fatalities. Sadly, nearly a third of those who perish, 30 percent, are children.