Estimating the burden of foodborne diseases

Each year worldwide, unsafe food causes 600 million cases of foodborne diseases and 420 000 deaths. 30% of foodborne deaths occur among children under 5 years of age. WHO estimated that 33 million years of healthy lives are lost due to eating unsafe food globally each year, and this number is likely an underestimation.

Foodborne diseases are preventable and WHO has a critical role in taking global leadership in investment and coordinated action across multiple sectors in order to build strong and resilient national food safety systems and provide consumers with tools to make safe food choices. With food safety receiving relatively little political attention, especially in developing countries, having a reliable data on the actual national burden of foodborne diseases is essential to draw public attention and mobilize political will and resources to combat foodborne diseases.

World Health Assembly Resolution 73.5 (WHA73.5) mandated WHO to monitor regularly and to report to Member States on the global burden of foodborne and zoonotic diseases at national, regional and international levels. It also mandated the preparation of a new report by 2025 on the global burden of foodborne diseases with up-to-date estimates of global foodborne disease incidence, mortality and disease burden in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). To achieve this resolution, WHO will release a complete set of estimates in 2025, and the underlying databases will be regularly updated afterwards.