World Health Organization Attribution of Burden of Foodborne Diseases to Transmission Pathways and Foods

World Health Organization Attribution of Burden of Foodborne Diseases to Transmission Pathways and Foods | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article World Health Organization Attribution of Burden of Foodborne Diseases to Transmission Pathways and Foods Sara Pires, Lapo Mughini-Gras, Sandra Hoffmann, Kunihiro Kubota, and 18 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9449162/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Identifying the sources of foodborne diseases is crucial for guiding national food safety strategies and supporting policies that promote safe and sustainable diets. We present global estimates of the proportions of burden of disease attributable to foodborne transmission, other major pathways, and food categories for 29 viral, bacterial, parasitic, and chemical hazards, based on a structured expert judgment (SEJ) study commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and supervised by the WHO Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG) for 2021-2025. One-hundred forty-six experts provided 1,463 assessments across 17 subregions within six WHO regions. Expert judgments were weighted using Cooke’s Classical Model and reviewed by FERG. We found that 13 of 29 hazards were >50% foodborne. Vegetables and “fruits and nuts” were important sources for multiple enteric and invasive pathogens, and animal-source foods, including poultry, beef, eggs, seafood, and dairy remained critical targets for intervention. Regional differences highlight the influence of local epidemiology, food systems, sanitation, and cultural practices. These estimates provide a global, uncertainty-quantified knowledge base to guide context-specific food safety interventions and future empirical data collection. Given persistent data gaps, SEJ remains the most feasible approach to generate evidence supporting efforts to reduce foodborne disease. Health sciences/Diseases/Infectious diseases Biological sciences/Microbiology/Bacteria/Infectious-disease epidemiology Biological sciences/Microbiology/Applied microbiology Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files Datasupplement1.xlsx Supplementary dataset 1 Supplementaryinformation.docx Supplementary information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9449162","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":625088297,"identity":"9baf8c2d-22a5-4a6e-a496-dbd7e0abf52f","order_by":0,"name":"Sara 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