300 million

One of Fresh Talk's readers passes along this story about Chinese food safety in advance of next year's Olympic games,and it makes the CDC's oft-quoted stat that 76 million U.S. consumers are sickened each year by foodborne illness look paltry.

Here is the link.

Here is an excerpt:

Outbreaks of food poisoning affect 300 million people in China every year, according to an Asian Development Bank report.
Experts say Chinese-grown produce is often contaminated by farmers using medicine, food additives and banned drugs like anabolic steroids to improve their crops and livestock.
Last September 336 people fell sick in Shanghai after eating pork contaminated with anabolic steroids.
Sales of turbot, a popular flatfish, were banned in parts of eastern China after they were found to contain carcinogens from antibiotics.
In Beijing 90 diners at one restaurant went to hospital suffering from meningitis after eating snails infested by parasites.

TK: A Chinese official said there will never be zero risk of contamination - right now it would appear the food based illness risk to consumers would be a number followed by a decimal point instead of preceded by one. And pork with anabolic steroids? A reader suggests Olympic athletes may want to have some of that in their freezer in case they test positive.