1 laboratory for 88 million, as India faces food-safety crisis

Maharashtra has the most laboratories while Uttar Pradesh has the least

Facing a growing food- and water-contamination crisis, India has only 148 food-testing laboratories. In other words, each laboratory serves 88 million people.

Maharashtra has the most laboratories, 27, a laboratory for every 4.2 million people. Uttar Pradesh has the least number of laboratories, 7, a laboratory for every 28 million people.

Adulterated food and contaminated water affects the health of millions of Indians, often crippling and killing them. Unsafe food and water, containing harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses and chemical substances are responsible for nearly 200 diseases, across India and the world.

So, on world health day, April 7, the slogan–“From farm to plate, make food safe“– and the theme, food safety, appear particularly relevant to India.

India is the worst in the world when it comes to deaths from diarrhoea with 11 out of every 100 children under the age of five who die, dying from diarrhoea. Among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations, South Africa is next with a diarrhoea death rate of 7%. China, the world’s most populous country has a 4% diarrhoea death rate.

Diarrhoea – Deaths among children under the 5


Source: World Health Statistics 2014; Figures in %

Milk is India’s most commonly adulterated food, as IndiaSpend previously reported, with 68.4% of milk samples adulterated, as per the standards of the Food Safety Standards Authority of India.In 2013-14, of 72,200 food samples, including milk/milk products, edible vegetable oils, spices, pulses, vegetables, regulatory officials found 13,571 samples adulterated and misbranded.

IndiaSpend also reported that about 46 million people across 78,508 rural habitations in India use water contaminated with arsenic and fluoride–both lead to serious health problems.

Organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the aim of world health day is to spur governments to improve food safety through public-awareness campaigns and encourage consumers to ensure the food on their plate is safe by asking questions, checking labels and following hygiene tips.

Diarrhoea, an intestinal tract infection that weaken the body, killed 5,305 Indians between 2011 and September 2014, with 40 million cases registered.

Another consequence of contaminated food and water is enteric fever or typhoid, a bacterial disease, caused by Salmonella typhi, transmitted by food or drink contaminated by the faeces or urine of infected people. Typhoid claimed 1,401 lives across India between 2011 and September 2014, with 5 million cases registered.

State-wise deaths from acute diarrhoeal diseases

Source: Lok Sabha; Figures for 2013 and 2014 are provisional, *2014 figures up to September

 

State-wise deaths caused due to enteric fever (typhoid)
 

Source: Lok Sabha; Figures for 2013 and 2014 are provisional, *2014 figures up to September

 

Globally, about 2 million people die each year from contaminated food or potable water, according to the WHO, and nearly 1.7 billion cases of diarrhoeal disease are reported every year.

Diarrhoea is also the second-largest killer of children globally, accounting for 9% of all deaths among children below the age of five. In 2013, an estimated 580,000 children–or nearly 1,600 every day–died of diarrhoeal infections.

(IndiaSpend is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit)