Food safety

Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health. Food can be a vehicle of disease transmission if contaminated with harmful microbes (bacteria, viruses or parasites) or chemicals/toxins. Around the world, an estimated 600 million - almost 1 in 10 people – fall ill after eating contaminated food each year, resulting in 420 000 deaths and the loss of 33 million healthy life years (DALYs). The WHO South-East Asia Region accounts for 150 million illnesses, 175 000 deaths, and 12 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs).

Food safety, nutrition, and food security are closely linked. Unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition, particularly affecting infants, young children, elderly, and the sick. In addition to contributing to food and nutrition security, a safe food supply also supports national economies, trade, and tourism, stimulating sustainable development. The globalization of food trade, a growing world population, climate change and rapidly changing food systems have an impact on the safety of food. WHO aims to enhance at a global and country-level the capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats associated with unsafe food.