GAIN World Food Safety Day

Food safety: Science in Action

Date: 7th June 2025

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

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
World Health Organization, editor. WHO estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2015.
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

World Food Safety Resources

WHO Food Safety Page

FAO Food Safety Page

Food Safety Webinars

Featured World Food Safety Articles

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the Islamabad Food Authority, and the National Alliance for Safe Food (NAFS) collaborated to lead Pakistan's national celebration of World Food Safety Day 2025 in Islamabad with the theme of "Food Safety: Science in Action."

Every morning in Nairobi’s informal settlements, thousands of mothers head to the local market, searching for fresh vegetables to feed their families. For many, affordability is a top concern—but so is safety.

Read Blog

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has been working in Ethiopia since 2002 to address malnutrition. The Country Director, Wubet Girma said, “We work in partnership with the government and the private sector to implement effective and sustainable solutions to malnutrition.”

Read Article in Amharic