The  United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has reported that over a quarter of children under five globally are in severe food poverty, affecting more than 180 million people and threatening their growth and development.

“Severe child food poverty describes children who are surviving on severely deprived diets so they’re only consuming two or less food groups,” explained Harriet Torlesse, a lead writer of the new UNICEF report released on Wednesday.

“It is shocking in this day and age where we know what needs to be done.”

UNICEF advises that young children should consume foods from five of eight main groups daily: breast milk; grains, roots, tubers, and plantains; pulses, nuts, and seeds; dairy; meat, poultry, and fish; eggs; vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables; and other fruits and vegetables.

However, 440 million children under five in about 100 low- and middle-income countries lack access to these five food groups each day. Out of these, 181 million children suffer from severe food poverty, consuming a maximum of two food groups.

“Children who consume just two food groups per day—for example, rice and some milk—are up to 50 percent more likely to experience severe forms of malnutrition,” said UNICEF chief Catherine Russell in a statement.

This malnutrition can cause emaciation, an extremely thin state that can be fatal.

Even if these children survive, they struggle to thrive and perform poorly in school, Torlesse noted.

Severe child food poverty is prevalent in about 20 countries, with particularly severe conditions in Somalia (63% of young children affected), Guinea (54%), Guinea-Bissau (53%), and Afghanistan (49%).

Although data for wealthy countries is unavailable, children in low-income households there also experience nutritional deficiencies.

The UNICEF report highlights the dire situation in the Gaza Strip, where Israel’s military response to the October 7 Hamas attack has devastated the food and health systems.

From December to April this year, UNICEF gathered five rounds of data via text message from families receiving financial aid in the besieged Palestinian territory. The findings showed that around nine in ten children were in severe food poverty.

While the data may not be entirely representative, it suggests an appalling escalation in nutrition deprivation since 2020, when only 13% of children in the Gaza Strip were in severe food poverty, according to UNICEF.

Globally, the agency noted the slow progress over the past decade in tackling this crisis and called for enhanced social services and humanitarian aid for the most vulnerable children.

UNICEF also advocated for a reevaluation of the global food processing system, pointing out that sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods are aggressively marketed to parents and families and have become the norm for feeding children.

“These foods are cheap but they’re also very high in calories. They’re high-energy, high salt, high fat. So they’ll fill stomachs and they’ll remove hunger, but they won’t provide the vitamins and minerals that children need.” Torlesse explained.