world food programme (2)

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This article examines the economic effect of the Covid pandemic, and in particular how it has impacted on the global food security especially in lower-income countries around the world. The World Food Programme estimated in April this year, that 296 million people are undernourished in the 35 countries it works in, which is a 60% increase from the previous year. Not only has the pandemic affected incomes and food supply in lower income countries such as Bangladesh, but also low income families in developed countries.such as the USA because of rising food prices. The World Bank has stated that although there has not generally been food shortages during the pandemic, next seasons's crops could be affected by supply disruptions and inflation affecting key agricultural inputs such as fertilisers and seeds, or prolonged labour shortages.

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Researchers at Queens University Belfast’s Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) were called in to support an investigation after a major food-poisoning incident in Uganda in March 2019, which killed five people and saw hundreds hospitalised. The incident was linked to a specialist nutritious food - Super Cereal, a fortified wheat and soya product supplied under the World Food Programme (WFP) to around 5 million people every year. The supply to affected area was suspended pending the investigation. The DNA of jimsonweed, a plant in the nightshade family, was found which corroborated the presence of high levels of tropane alkaloids in the suspended batches of Super Cereal. However, a second outbreak occurred in a refugee camp in the North of Uganda, where the Super Cereal going into this region was from a completely different supply chain. So the WFP had to take the decision to suspend all supplies of Super Cereal. The QUB team, however, suspected that some form of fraud had occurred, and were able to show that both outbreaks were caused by contaminated ingredients from the same batches produced in Turkey.

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