More than 700,000 people die from consuming contaminated food or water in the Asia-Pacific region every year, a United Nations conference heard today.

"The death toll of food-borne illnesses is staggering," said Hartwig de Haen, assistant director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.

He was addressing food safety policy-makers and specialists from 40 countries in the region on global efforts to reduce the risk of large-scale food-borne disease outbreaks and their public health and trade ramifications.

The average estimated cost in each outbreak of food-borne illness is US$100 per person per year and the cost could be much higher in developing countries, De Haen said.

Outbreaks of food-borne diseases can badly strain health care systems and reduce productivity, said Han Tieru, the UN's World Health Organisationrepresentative for Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore.

Even though avian flu and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) - which recently caused major public health crises in Asia - were not food-borne diseases "they are all in some way related to either the way food is produced or how food animals are handled," he said.

"The danger of food-related outbreaks is particularly acute in Asia and the Pacific, because of the instances in which animals and people live in proximity and the way in which some food is produced and distributed," said Kerstin Leitner, WHO assistant director-general responsible for food safety.

Pesticide residues

The avian flu epidemic, as the most recent example of a disease linking food, animals and human health, was unprecedented, with 23 fatal human cases and about 100 million birds dead or culled, she said.

The conference in Seremban, south of Kuala Lumpur, hopes to come up with an action plan for countries to improve food safety systems and strengthen regional co-operation in food-borne disease surveillance.

The conference is also expected to discuss measures to reduce pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables, antibiotics in seafood and poultry and the safety of infant formula - the subject of a scandal in China this month.

At least 12 babies died from consuming sub-standard milk powder in a case that highlighted the country's poor food safety standards.

Without naming the countries concerned, the WHO said other recent outbreaks of food-borne illness in the region included more than 3,000 children made ill by bad food in their school canteen and 38 human casualties from consumption of contaminated food during a traditional feast. - AFP