Summary
This analysis quantifies the global health impacts of international food trade by linking bilateral trade data from 2019 with food-specific risk–disease relationships. The authors find that trade effects on dietary health are commodity-dependent: imports of fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts were associated with substantial reductions in diet-related mortality (~1.4 million deaths prevented globally), whilst imports of red meat increased mortality burden (~150,000 deaths). The findings suggest that trade policy and agricultural strategies should explicitly account for health impacts through dietary composition.
UK applicability
The United Kingdom is a substantial net importer of fresh produce, red meat and processed foods. These findings are relevant to UK food policy, trade negotiations post-Brexit, and the design of trade agreements that might affect the composition of the national diet and population health outcomes.
Key measures
Mortality attributable to international food trade by commodity type; diet-related disease burden (non-communicable diseases); bilateral trade volumes and composition by country (2019)
Outcomes reported
The study quantified the global health burden attributable to international food trade by analysing bilateral trade data from 2019 and food-specific risk–disease relationships. It estimated that fruit, vegetable, legume and nut imports prevented approximately 1.4 million deaths from non-communicable diseases globally, whilst red meat imports were associated with approximately 150,000 additional deaths.
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