The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported that unsafe food leads to approximately 1.5 million deaths each year globally. An estimated 866 million people fall ill annually from consuming contaminated food, with children under five among the most at risk. Unsafe food includes items tainted by biological agents like bacteria and parasites, chemical substances such as lead and methylmercury, or physical contaminants like glass and metal. Exposure to certain chemicals through food can impair brain development and lead to long-term neurological and developmental issues in children.
Chemical hazards were responsible for 73 per cent of deaths from contaminated food in 2021, according to WHO. Inorganic arsenic and lead were the primary contributors, with prolonged exposure linked to increased risks of heart disease and cancer. These two substances alone were associated with over one million deaths in a single year. The WHO data shows that Africa and Southeast Asia bear nearly 75 per cent of the global burden of foodborne illnesses and 60 per cent of related deaths.
The economic impact of foodborne diseases was estimated at 310 billion dollars in lost productivity in 2021 due to work absences. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus stated, "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."
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 reports 1.5 million annual deaths from unsafe food, yet frames it as a new revelation despite long-standing awareness. The data pins 73% of deaths on chemical hazards like lead and arsenic, substances known for decades to poison food supplies. If the same contaminants continue killing at this scale, the real issue is not awareness but enforcement in food monitoring systems. Nigerians consuming locally processed or imported goods are directly exposed to these same risks without stated safeguards.
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