1st Edition (2015)

In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the WHO Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG) for 2007-2015 released regional and global estimates of the burden of foodborne diseases for the year 2010. 

The health burden of three broad categories of 31 hazards in total were estimated: enteric hazards (e.g. bacteria and viruses), parasitic hazards, and chemicals and toxins. The report estimated that each year, 600 million people fall ill and 420 000 people die from unsafe food, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years. Children under 5 years of age were severely impacted, with 125 000 dying from foodborne diseases every year. Tragically, these illnesses and deaths are largely preventable. 

This public health burden of foodborne diseases expressed in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) was further translated by the World Bank into the economic burden estimates, resulting in the loss of US$95 billion per year due to a productivity loss as a result of unsafe food.

Main result paper

Havelaar AH, Kirk MD, Torgerson PR, Gibb HJ, Hald T, Lake RJ, Praet N, Bellinger DC, de Silva NR, Gargouri N, Speybroeck N, Cawthorne A, Mathers C, Stein C, Angulo FJ, Devleesschauwer B; World Health Organization Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group. World Health Organization Global Estimates and Regional Comparisons of the Burden of Foodborne Disease in 2010. PLoS Med. 2015 Dec 3;12(12): e1001923.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001923

Methodology

Devleesschauwer B, Haagsma JA, Angulo FJ, Bellinger DC, Cole D, Döpfer D et al. Methodological Framework for World Health Organization Estimates of the Global Burden of Foodborne Disease. PLOS ONE. 2015;10(12): e0142498.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0142498

Enteric hazards

Kirk MD, Pires SM, Black RE, Caipo M, Crump JA, et al. (2015) World Health Organization Estimates of the Global and Regional Disease Burden of 22 Foodborne Bacterial, Protozoal, and Viral Diseases, 2010: A Data Synthesis. PLOS Medicine 12(12): e100192.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001921 

Parasitic hazards

Torgerson PR, Devleesschauwer B, Praet N, Speybroeck N, Willingham AL, Kasuga F, Rokni MB, Zhou XN, Fèvre EM, Sripa B, Gargouri N, Fürst T, Budke CM, Carabin H, Kirk MD, Angulo FJ, Havelaar A, de Silva N. World Health Organization Estimates of the Global and Regional Disease Burden of 11 Foodborne Parasitic Diseases, 2010: A Data Synthesis. PLoS Med. 2015 Dec 3;12(12): e1001920. 
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001920

Chemical and toxin hazards

Gibb H, Devleesschauwer B, Bolger PM et al. World Health Organization estimates of the global and regional disease burden of four foodborne chemical toxins, 2010: a data synthesis [version 1; peer review: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]. F1000Research 2015, 4:1393.
https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.7340.1

Source attribution studies

Hald T, Aspinall W, Devleesschauwer B, Cooke R, Corrigan T, et al. (2016) World Health Organization Estimates of the Relative Contributions of Food to the Burden of Disease Due to Selected Foodborne Hazards: A Structured Expert Elicitation. PLOS ONE 11(1): e0145839.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145839

Hoffmann S, Devleesschauwer B, Aspinall W, Cooke R, Corrigan T, et al. (2017) Attribution of global foodborne disease to specific foods: Findings from a World Health Organization structured expert elicitation. PLOS ONE 12(9): e0183641.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183641

National studies

Lake RJ, Devleesschauwer B, Nasinyama G, Havelaar AH, Kuchenmüller T, et al. (2015) National Studies as a Component of the World Health Organization Initiative to Estimate the Global and Regional Burden of Foodborne Disease. PLOS ONE 10(12): e0140319.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140319

Data sources for the 1st Edition

List of commissioned studies (hosted under the WHO Collaborating Centre)