A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on preventable food-borne diseases indicates that food-poisoning affects as many as one in ten of the world’s 6 billion population every year, totalling 600 million, with deaths running at 420,000, or 0.07%

Many deaths are of young children, and most are among the poor in Africa and South-East Asia. Children under 5 account for 40% of poisoning cases and 30% of the deaths. Common killers are bacteria such as salmonella, along with viruses, parasites such as the pork tapeworm, toxins and chemicals, and the WHO has called for better inspections of foods at farms and factories and training of street food vendors, a common source of contaminated foods.