In Nigeria, foodborne illness is a significant public health issue, causing over 200,000 deaths a year and contributing to a childhood stunting rate of 37 percent in children under the age of five. To develop strategies to address food safety at the household level, researchers funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL) are working with citizen scientists to understand the challenges mothers face in providing safe, nutritious meals for their families.
“Exposure to unsafe food in the household through inappropriate food storage, cross-contamination, and the presence of an infected food handler may create a vicious cycle of diarrheal illness that threatens the nutritional status of the most vulnerable, especially infants and young children,” said Abiodun Atoloye, assistant professor of nutrition science at Utah State University and a FSIL Nigeria project co-PI.