Unsafe food kills 1.5 million people each year; children most at risk: WHO

Key points

• The new insights released on Wednesday ahead of next week’s World Food Safety Day, show that children under five are particularly vulnerable.
• Although they account for just nine per cent of the global population, they suffer nearly one-third of all foodborne diseases, many of them severe diarrhoeal illnesses that can prove fatal, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
• No abstraction Exposure to chemicals such as lead and methylmercury through food can also damage developing brains and cause lifelong neurological and developmental problems in children.
• “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.