Burden of foodborne disease in low-income and middle-income countries and opportunities for scaling food safety interventions

Delia Grace ()
Additional contact information
Delia Grace: University of Greenwich

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, 2023, vol. 15, issue 6, No 5, 1475-1488

Abstract: Abstract Foodborne diseases (FBD) are an important externality of agriculture and food systems, but only since 2015 have they risen up the development agenda. In the first part of this Review, I discuss the multiple burdens of FBD and how they relate to food systems with a focus on low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC), particularly African nations. The health burden of FBD is comparable with that of malaria, and over 90% falls on people in LMIC, with an economic burden of more than US$100 million per year. FBD have many other, less well-estimated effects on nutrition, gender, equity, and the environment. FBD are becoming increasingly prevalent in LMIC and many outbreaks are attributable to nutritious, fresh foods purchased from informal markets. In the second part of the paper, I consider options for improved management of FBD at scale in LMIC. I summarize previous investments in Africa, finding that they have often been poorly directed and evaluated. Finally, on the basis of a systematic literature review, I make recommendations for an integrated framework to evaluate food safety interventions in LMIC, including a typology for interventions and five factors critical for success. Incorporating these factors into food safety interventions will ensure that they are scalable and sustainable.

Keywords: Foodborne disease; Food safety; Low-income and middle-income countries; Informal markets; Food systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12571-023-01391-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ssefpa:v:15:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1007_s12571-023-01391-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ulture/journal/12571

DOI: 10.1007/s12571-023-01391-3

Access Statistics for this article

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food is currently edited by R.N. Strange

More articles in Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food from Springer, The International Society for Plant Pathology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().