About 866 Million Illnesses Linked to Contaminated Food Annually: WHO

An Afghan orphan looks on as he eats his lunch at the Halwdin government orphanage in Kabul on Dec. 17, 2014. Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty ImagesAround 866 million illnesses worldwide in 2021 were due to foodborne infections, with young children at high risk, according to a June 3 peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet Global Health.The study, funded by the World Health Organization (WHO), investigated foodborne disease burden in 2021 caused by 42 infectious and chemical hazards at the national, subregional, regional, and global levels.