Contaminated Food Kills 420,000 People Worldwide Per Year – WHO

Every year, an estimated 420,000 people around the world lose their lives from eating food contaminated by bacteria, viruses or chemical substances, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

The global health organisation disclosed this in a tweet to commemorate the inaugural World Food Safety Day themed “Food Safety, everyone’s business”.

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The first-ever celebration of the World Food Safety Day, to be marked globally on 7 June is an initiative adopted by the United Nations(UN) in December 2018 in collaboration with WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), to strengthen efforts to ensure that the food we eat is safe.

Contaminated food adversely affects human health, economic prosperity, and sustainable development, to this end, the UN health agency said the access to safe and nutritious food is the shared responsibility of governments, producers as well as individuals.

“Unsafe food also hinders development in low-and-middle-income economies, which lose around $95 billion in productivity associated with illness, disability and premature death suffered by workers.

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“FAO and WHO are joining forces to assist countries to prevent manage and respond to risks along the food supply chain, working with food producers and vendors, regulatory authorities and civil society stakeholders, whether the food is domestically produced or imported,” it said.

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