June 19 : Unsafe food now causes an estimated 866 million illnesses and 1.5 million deaths globally every year, according to new estimates released by the World Health Organization . Nearly one-third of all foodborne disease cases occur among children under the age of five, despite them accounting for only 9% of the global population. The economic burden is equally alarming, with unsafe food resulting in approximately US Dollar 310 billion in lost productivity and medical expenses annually worldwide.
These numbers are changing the way governments, regulators, healthcare experts, and industries approach food safety. Increasingly, the focus is shifting from reactive inspections to preventive systems capable of reducing contamination risks before food reaches the consumer. The focus on food safety reflects that global push towards evidence-based, preventive interventions that strengthen food safety across the value chain.
For India, the conversation carries even greater significance. As one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing food economies, the country is witnessing rapid expansion across food processing, organised retail, e-commerce, hospitality, and home delivery platforms. Over the years, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has played an important role in strengthening food safety regulations, promoting hygiene standards and encouraging safer food handling practices. But while conversations around food safety often focus on ingredients, packaging, or storage, one critical aspect still remains under-discussed: the surfaces and materials that food comes into contact with every single day.
Commenting on the evolving public health challenge, Dr. Rohit Sharma, Consultant – Internal Medicine, Apollo Spectra Hospital, Jaipur, said,
“Unsafe food is no longer just about contaminated ingredients or poor handling; it is a broader public health challenge linked to the entire environment where food is processed, stored, prepared and served. As India strengthens preventive food safety systems, greater attention must be paid to kitchens, utensils, storage systems and food-contact surfaces that influence hygiene outcomes. In a country with intensive cooking practices, material safety and cleanability are becoming an important part of protecting families from foodborne risks.”
The kitchen, after all, sits at the centre of Indian family life. It is where meals are prepared for families, and where daily decisions around nutrition, hygiene, and health quietly shape household well-being. Yet, consumers rarely think about the materials used across these environments – from cookware, kitchen counters, sinks, storage containers, cutlery, and water bottles to serving utensils, tiffin boxes, food preparation surfaces, and appliances that come into repeated contact with food.
As food safety conversations evolve globally, attention is increasingly moving towards these ‘food-contact environments’ – the kitchens, surfaces, and systems through which food passes before consumption. As per worldstainless white paper, there is a rising global focus on food-contact materials with more and more attention being paid to solutions that are long-lasting, resistant to corrosion, and hygienic. The recent industry research indicates the rise in preference for stainless steel in the food processing sector. This is driven by the material’s durability, cleanability, and suitability for environments that require stringent hygiene protocols and frequent cleaning. The organization further notes that recent global food safety regulations have increasingly emphasized hygienic design, performance of materials, and validated cleaning efficacy.
Adding to this perspective, Dr. Arvind Aggarwal, Director – Internal Medicine, Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, Delhi, said,
“As food safety becomes increasingly science-led, there is growing recognition that food-contact materials are an important part of reducing contamination risks. Indian kitchens face demanding conditions, including high heat, moisture, oil, spices and acidic foods, making durability, corrosion resistance and ease of cleaning essential. Stainless steel has emerged as a preferred choice because it supports hygiene and long-term use, but the larger message is that the surfaces we cook on, store in and serve from are integral to the overall food safety ecosystem.”
This becomes particularly relevant in India, where cooking conditions are both intensive and unique. High-temperature cooking, frequent exposure to moisture, spices, salt, oil, and acidic ingredients such as tamarind, tomato, curd, and lemon create challenging conditions for kitchenware and food-contact surfaces over prolonged periods of use. Material degradation, surface damage, and poor hygiene retention can therefore become larger long-term concerns than consumers often realise.
Commenting on the evolving food safety landscape, Rajamani Krishnamurti, President, Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA), said,
“As the discourse around food safety evolves from risk identification to risk mitigation, there is an increasing focus on the environments in which food is processed, stored, transported, and prepared. Stainless steel has become a key part of today’s food systems because it supports hygiene, durability and ease of sanitation. As India works on improving its ability to process food and its standards for food safety, investments in clean infrastructure and solutions based on stainless steel can help support safer systems for food across the value chain.”
The relevance extends beyond industrial food systems into Indian households themselves. Kitchenware and hollowware account for nearly 30-35% of India’s stainless steel consumption, making it the single-largest application segment for stainless steel and placing India among the largest kitchenware markets globally. The segment serves millions of households annually and continues to grow steadily as consumers become more conscious about health, hygiene, durability, and long-term value.
Food safety, therefore, is no longer just a regulatory conversation. It is increasingly becoming a question of everyday infrastructure that quietly shapes the safety of what families consume every day. As awareness grows, kitchens themselves may become one of the most important frontlines in the global conversation on preventive public health.