Workers sort produce in a packing house in Taroudant, Morocco, in 2015.
Photo courtesy Alessandra Benedetti, FAO
Contaminated food takes a devastatingly heavy toll on health and lives around the globe, new findings from the World Health Organization show.
Foodborne hazards such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and toxic chemicals led to an estimated 866 million illnesses and 1.5 million deaths in 2021, according to a June analysis from WHO researchers that was published in The Lancet Global Health.
Children ages 5 and under suffer disproportionately from the dangers, with young kids accounting for about a third of illnesses and over 140,000 deaths.
Clean drinking water, improved sanitation and better hygiene and food safety practices could prevent many of the illnesses and deaths, WHO researchers said. Low-income countries in Africa and Southeast Asia experienced the highest illness and mortality rates.
“Countries must act urgently, using these estimates to target interventions, invest in surveillance and break down the silos between health, agriculture and environment sectors,” Yuki Minato, MPH, a WHO technical officer for food safety and a senior author of the study, said in a news release. “Delay costs lives.”
The analysis examined more than 40 foodborne diseases in nearly 200 countries and regions. Though some improvement has been made since 2000 in foodborne disease burdens, thanks partly to better food and water safety systems, the number of cases remains far too high, researchers said. They said the problem is on par with other major global public health issues, such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis.
Contamination of food can happen during growing, manufacturing, transport or storage. While some foodborne illnesses last only a few days, with diarrhea being the main symptom, other cases are chronic, resulting in long-term debility or death.
E. coli is the most common bacterial infection. Other threats include bacterial strains such as shigella, which comes from eating contaminated produce, and STEC, caused by consuming raw and uncooked meat and dairy products, the analysis said. Viruses and parasites, such as norovirus and rotavirus, also contaminate food, causing vomiting and diarrhea.
Workers label cheese for traceability at a business in Scanno, Italy, in 2021. Sound safety practices can help prevent illness from food contamination, WHO researchers say.
Photo by Victor Sokolowicz, courtesy FAO
Chemical hazards cause less than 1% of global illnesses, yet drive a disproportionate number of deaths, the analysis said. Long-term exposure to arsenic and lead raises risk of heart disease and cancer. Lead and methylmercury can impair cognitive development in children.
Another factor is climate change, which is increasing food contamination risks as warmer temperatures and increased rainfall help pathogens spread and survive. Antimicrobial resistance is making foodborne infections more difficult to treat as bacteria become resistant to commonly used medicines.
Africa and Southeast Asia account for nearly three-quarters of all foodborne illnesses and 60% of deaths, the study said. The highest rates of food contamination were found in countries in Central Africa. Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon experienced 1,500 cases of foodborne illnesses per 100,000 people in 2021.
In Southeast Asia, India experienced at least 1,200 cases of illnesses per 100,000 people. Diseases that caused diarrhea were common in Africa, while Southeast Asia experienced a high rate of illness related to chemical toxins.
“Food safety is not an abstract issue — it touches every meal, every family, every day,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said in a news release. “Unsafe food has always been a major public health concern, but until now we lacked the bigger picture of its staggering human and economic toll. These new estimates change that.”
For more information, visit www.who.int.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
