Imagine Losing Your Job and Your Health Because of One Meal!
Marking World Food Safety Day 2025: Why Unsafe Food Is Not Just a Health Risk. It’s an Existential Economic Threat
World Food Safety Day 2025 comes with a powerful theme: “Food Safety: Science in Action.” It’s a reminder that science isn’t just for the lab. It’s for the market stalls, the farms, the processing rooms, and the dinner tables. For millions across Africa, the safety of their food determines not only their health but also their economic future.
At Inspire Decisions Consulting, we’re marking this year’s commemoration by spotlighting a truth that’s often overlooked: Unsafe food doesn’t just make people sick. It pushes families into poverty. It weakens businesses. Likewise, it stalls national development.
For millions across sub-Saharan Africa, food safety isn’t just a public health concern—it’s a question of economic survival. One contaminated meal can knock a farmer off their feet for days. A foodborne illness can cost a factory worker their wages or even their job. For families on the edge of poverty, that single exposure can push them over.
According to the World Health Organization, unsafe food costs low- and middle-income countries over $110 billion annually in lost productivity and medical expenses. That’s more than many countries spend on education or infrastructure.
Figure 1: Economic losses from unsafe food in LMICs, based on World Bank 2018 estimates. Source: World Bank (2018)
And while the costs are staggering, the tragedy is this: most foodborne illnesses are preventable.
Unsafe Food = Lost Livelihoods
Food safety breaches don’t just lead to hospital visits; they lead to economic loss on multiple levels:
- Individuals lose workdays and income
- Businesses, especially MSMEs, suffer reputation damage and output disruptions
- Governments face higher public health costs and lost tax revenue
- Donors and investors see weakened returns on food systems investments
These ripple effects slow economic growth, reduce food system resilience, and erode trust in local food markets, precisely where most people in Africa source their meals.
A Development Priority Hiding in Plain Sight
At Inspire Decisions Consulting, we believe food safety must be seen not only as a health imperative but as a development and economic growth strategy.
Through programs like the EPIC Accelerator, backed by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition via the Nutrition Impact at Scale project and the IGNITE+ project, where we serve as a Local Service Provider with Tanager, we are helping to close the food safety gap with practical, scalable interventions:
- Supporting safer production, post-harvest handling, and processing practices for smallholder farmers and MSMEs through integrated capacity building in food safety, business model innovation, financial literacy, and market system linkages to quality raw materials, innovative finance, and higher-value market opportunities.
Figure 2: Food safety management capacities and functions. Source: World Bank (2019)
- Training agricultural institutions to embed gender-sensitive food safety and nutrition practices into their internal policies and last-mile service delivery to farmers and food entrepreneurs (figure 2).
- Advocating for data-informed regulation and enforcement by supporting research and strengthening ecosystem stakeholders’ ability to design programs that integrate rigorous impact measurement and management (IMM) practices.
- Driving innovation in food safety through academic collaboration—working with research institutions to promote context-specific R&D in food safety and nutrition, and co-developing community awareness strategies grounded in WHO’s Five Keys to Safer Food.
Figure 3: WHO Framework for Action on Food Safety. Source: World Bank (2019)
This is what “Science in Action” looks like: when research, regulation, and real-world enterprise support align to create safer food systems from farm to fork.
A Call to Action: Invest in Food Safety Now
If we want local food systems to power growth, not sickness, then safety can’t be optional. We call on:
- Governments need to scale food safety systems with proper funding, regulation, and enforcement
- Food businesses and MSMEs to adopt safety as a core business practice, not a box to tick
- Enterprise Support Organizations (ESOs) to embed food safety into their support programs, training curricula, and ecosystem-building efforts
- Donors and investors to treat food safety as a frontline investment for economic development
Safe Food Isn’t a Luxury. It’s the Foundation.
The cost of unsafe food is too high to ignore, and the return on prevention is too strong to delay. Let’s build food systems that protect health, preserve dignity, and unlock prosperity. One safe plate at a time!
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