What are the countries with the worst food safety in the world? Right now, there are nearly 850 million people who do not have sufficient food. You might think this shows that there is a shortage of food in the world, but you’d be wrong. The reason for starvation is not a lack of resources, but wastage of resources, improper allocation and overconsumption.
Another reason for starvation is the lack of food quality, with a lot of the food not being fit for consumption. Unfortunately, either due to ignorance or lack of options, many people tend to consume such food. This can result in a host of diseases much worse than a mild bout of diarrhea and in countries where few people can afford medical care, it can even result in death.
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Of course, there are countries which lay great emphasis on food. These countries are famous for the food they present and include names such as Italy and Greece; you can check out the complete list at 11 countries with the best food in the world.
Oxfam International conducted a study to determine the countries which are the best and worst countries to eat in. The study, which is one of its kind, used several factors in order to determine the best places to eat in. Each factor was given a score ranging from 0 to 100, where 0 was the best possible and 100 was the worst possible score. Of course, since we only want to determine countries with the worst food safety, the factors relevant to us were access to clean drinking water and nutritional diversity of the food available in the country. With these two factors, we have established the worst 25 countries with the worst food safety in the world, which are as follows:
25. Malawi
Score regarding access to drinking water: 23
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 36
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 83
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 12
Average Ranking: 24
24. Senegal
Score regarding access to drinking water: 38
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 23
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 67
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 23
Average Ranking: 23
23. Côte d’Ivoire
Score regarding access to drinking water: 29
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 30
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 76
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 15
Average Ranking: 22.5
22. Congo
Score regarding access to drinking water: 39
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 21
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 67
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 23
Average Ranking: 22
21. Guinea
Score regarding access to drinking water: 37
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 24
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 71
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 20
Average Ranking: 22
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20. United Republic of Tanzania
Score regarding access to drinking water: 66
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 7
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 62
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 36
Average Ranking: 21.5
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19. Guinea-Bissau
Score regarding access to drinking water: 40
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 20
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 67
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 23
Average Ranking: 21.5
18. Niger
Score regarding access to drinking water: 70
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 6
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 62
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 36
Average Ranking: 21
One of the worst performers in the United Nation’s Human Development Index year after year, this African country has a severe scarcity of food and water, both qualitatively and quantitatively due to it experiencing severe droughts every year.
17. Burkina Faso
Score regarding access to drinking water: 28
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 31
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 84
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 10
Average Ranking: 20.5
16. Benin
Score regarding access to drinking water: 34
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 28
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 83
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 12
Average Ranking: 20
15. Sierra Leone
Score regarding access to drinking water: 60
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 10
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 66
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 29
Average Ranking: 19.5
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14. Angola
Score regarding access to drinking water: 66
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 7
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 34
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 31
Average Ranking: 19
The seventh largest country in the continent of Africa, most of Angola’s wealth is spread amongst a small part of the population, leading to most of its citizens living in poverty. The country is still recovering from a civil war which ended in 2002 and its uneven growth in economy has led to the government unable to focus on improving food safety in the country.
13. Bangladesh
Score regarding access to drinking water: 24
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 35
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 98
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 1
Average Ranking: 18
12. Yemen
Score regarding access to drinking water: 64
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 9
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 67
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 23
Average Ranking: 16
An Arab country in Asia, Yemen’s food quality has spiraled out of control due to the fact that the country has been in political turmoil since 2011. Furthermore, there has been a severe water scarcity problem in the country, which has led to people wondering whether it will become the first country in the world to officially run out of water.
11. Nigeria
Score regarding access to drinking water: 55
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 12
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 72
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 18
Average Ranking: 15
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10. Lesotho
Score regarding access to drinking water: 32
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 29
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 98
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 1
Average Ranking: 15
Lesotho, a country in Africa with a population of over 2 million people, is one of the poorest nations in the world. Nearly 40% of the population of this country live below what is considered to be the international poverty line, which means that they earn less than $1.25 per day. Hence, it is no surprise that the quality of food and food safety are not focused on greatly in the country.
9. Mali
Score regarding access to drinking water: 49
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 15
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 81
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 14
Average Ranking: 14.5
8. Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Score regarding access to drinking water: 43
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 19
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 86
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 8
Average Ranking: 13.5
7. Chad
Score regarding access to drinking water: 71
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 4
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 72
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 18
Average Ranking: 11
Chad performed the worst overall in the study conducted by Food Safety News. However, it is not bottom on the 10 countries with the worst food safety in the world. While it has earned poor ratings in both the factors, there are countries which have managed to perform even worse.
6. Cambodia
Score regarding access to drinking water: 47
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 16
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 88
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 6
Average Ranking: 11
5. Zambia
Score regarding access to drinking water: 51
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 14
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 88
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 6
Average Ranking: 10
It seems like African countries are dominating the list. Zambia is another country with a terrible record, especially in nutritional diversity, with a score of 88 demonstrating how poor the nation has performed in this regard.
4. Togo
Score regarding access to drinking water: 58
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 11
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 86
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 8
Average Ranking: 9.5
While it is one of the more stable nations on this list, Togo still has a long way to go in improving the quality and safety of its food, which is one of the worst in the world.
3. Ethiopia
Score regarding access to drinking water: 72
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 3
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 90
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 4
Average Ranking: 3.5
Ethiopia may have improved significantly from the years of famine in the 1980s, but the effects can still be felt as the country still ranks poorly in the quality of food provided in the nation, both in nutritional diversity and access to drinking water.
2. Mozambique
Score regarding access to drinking water: 75
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 1
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 90
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 4
Average Ranking: 2.5
Mozambique has had water supply issues for decades, and though it is improving, most of the people in the country do not have regular access to drinking water, which is why it is the worst country regarding access to drinking water in the entire study.
1. Madagascar
Score regarding access to drinking water: 74
Ranking according to access to drinking water: 2
Score regarding nutritional diversity: 97
Ranking according to nutritional diversity: 3
Average Ranking: 2.5
There is no surprise that an African country is number one in the top 10 countries with the worst food safety in the world. 90% of Madagascar’s population survives on slightly over $2 per day and face a low quality of life, which includes the quality of their food as well.
