GAIN World Food Safety Day

Food safety: Science in Action

Date: 7th June 2025

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Event Overview

Each day, an estimated 1.6 million people fall sick due to unsafe food [1,2]. The economic toll is staggering – foodborne diseases cost low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) approximately $110 billion USD each year [3]. These figures highlight both the scale of the opportunity and the opportunity to prevent illness and economic loss by improving food safety.

GAIN's Participation

At GAIN, we work to increase access to healthy diets for all, especially the most vulnerable. And we know: if food isn’t safe, it isn’t food. That is why our mission includes not just improving the availability, affordability, and desirability of nutritious foods produced in a sustainable way, but also ensuring their safety, and reducing the consumption of foods that are unsafe or unhealthy.

This year, as part of World Food Safety Day, GAIN joins global partners in spotlighting how science and evidence can help improve food safety and reduce the burden of food borne disease.

Over the past year:

  • We conducted food safety trainings in countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, helping translate evidence into practice and policy.
  • In Ethiopia, we worked directly with market vendors to promote safe food handling in traditional markets — because everyone is a food safety risk manager.
  • And through platforms like the Food Systems Dashboard, we have helped generate and share data to drive better decision-making — because there is no evidence without data.

These are just a few of the ways that GAIN is working to make food safety everyone’s business.

 

 

References

  1.  Havelaar AH, Kirk MD, Torgerson PR, Gibb HJ, Hald T, Lake RJ, et al. World Health Organization Global Estimates and Regional Comparisons of the Burden of Foodborne Disease in 2010. von Seidlein L, editor. PLoS Med. 2015;12: e1001923. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001923
  2. World Health Organization, editor. WHO estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2015.
  3. Jaffee S, Henson S, Unnevehr L, Grace D, Cassou E. The Safe Food Imperative: Accelerating Progress in Low-And Middle-income Countries. Washington, DC: World Bank; 2019. Available: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/30568

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Contact 

Dr. Ariel Garsow is the Technical Focal Point for Food Safety and a Technical Advisor for Policy and Governance at GAIN. 

Ariel Garsow

Ariel Garsow

Food Safety Lead, Technical Advisor – Policy and Governance