Unsafe food causes an estimated 866 million illnesses and 1.5 million deaths every year worldwide, according to new data from the World Health Organisation.

This highlights the often-overlooked toll of contaminated food on health, development, and fragile economies.

The new insights, released on Wednesday, ahead of next week’s World Food Safety Day, celebrated on June 7, show that children under five are particularly vulnerable.

Unsafe food is any food that may cause illness, injury, or physical harm when consumed.

It is typically contaminated by biological (bacteria, parasites), chemical (toxins, heavy metals), or physical (glass, metal) agents.

These hazards can cause conditions ranging from mild diarrhoea to severe, life-threatening.

Although they account for just nine per cent of the global population, they suffer nearly one-third of all foodborne diseases, many of them severe diarrhoeal illnesses that can prove fatal, according to the WHO

Exposure to chemicals such as lead and methylmercury through food can also damage developing brains and cause lifelong neurological and developmental problems in children.

“Food safety is not an abstract issue – it touches every meal, every family, every day. 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,” WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus said.

The study found that foodborne bacteria, viruses, and parasites accounted for most illnesses, about 860 million cases in 2021 alone. Yet chemical contamination was responsible for most deaths linked to unsafe food.

According to the WHO, chemical hazards accounted for 73 per cent of deaths from contaminated food in 2021.

Inorganic arsenic and lead were the leading contributors, largely because prolonged exposure increases the risk of heart disease and cancer. Together, the two substances were linked to more than one million deaths in a single year.

Food can become contaminated through unsafe water, improperly handled products, or toxins entering the food chain through environmental pollution and industrial activities. Once chemicals such as arsenic, lead, or methylmercury enter the food supply, they are often difficult or impossible to remove.

WHO said Africa and Southeast Asia account for nearly three-quarters of all foodborne illnesses and 60 per cent of global deaths.

Children and people living in low-resource communities face the greatest risks, reflecting persistent inequalities in food systems, healthcare access, and sanitation.

The WHO estimates that foodborne diseases resulted in around $310 billion in lost productivity in 2021 due to time away from work. Adjusted for differences in the cost of living between countries, the economic losses rise to an estimated $647 billion.

“This report is a wake-up call – but also a roadmap,” Yuki Minato, a WHO technical officer for food safety and senior author of the study published in The Lancet Global Health, said. “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. We cannot tackle these threats alone.”

WHO said the findings should help countries target interventions, strengthen surveillance, and improve cooperation across health, agriculture, and environmental sectors.

“Delay costs lives,” the WHO officer warned.

(NAN)