A new report from the World Health Organization reveals that unsafe food kills 1.5 million people each year, with children under five bearing the brunt of the crisis. Although they represent just 9% of the global population, children account for nearly one-third of all foodborne illnesses-many of them severe diarrheal diseases that can be fatal.
Exposure to chemicals like lead and methylmercury through food also damages developing brains, causing lifelong neurological and developmental problems.
“Food safety is not an abstract issue-it touches every meal, every family, every day,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “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.”
Foodborne bacteria, viruses, and parasites caused about 860 million illnesses in 2021 alone. However, chemical contamination-especially inorganic arsenic and lead-was responsible for 73% of deaths, linked to heart disease and cancers. Together, these two substances were associated with over one million deaths last year.
Africa and Southeast Asia account for nearly three-quarters of all foodborne illnesses and 60% of global deaths. The economic toll is also severe: WHO estimates $310 billion in lost productivity in 2021, rising to $647 billion when adjusted for cost-of-living differences.
“This report is a wake-up call-but also a roadmap,” said Yuki Minato, a WHO technical officer and senior author of the study published in The Lancet Global Health. “The data show that foodborne diseases are not only persistent but are being made worse by climate change, which increases contamination risks, and by antimicrobial resistance, which makes infections harder to treat.”
“Delay costs lives,” Minato warned.