732. Global Indicators on the Costs of Healthy Diets

On March 1, UN the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a country-by-country index of the cost of a healthy diet (including costs by food group) and the populations that cannot afford a healthy diet.

As of 2020, there will be 3.1 billion people who cannot afford a healthy diet, 112 million more than in 2019, reflecting the increased cost of healthy eating in 2020. Latin America and the Caribbean have the highest cost of healthy eating compared to other regions, at $3.89 per person per day in 2020. In 12 countries, all in Africa, more than 90% of people do not have access to a healthy diet at any given time. The same is true for more than half of the population in the 53 countries for which data exist. Conversely, in 26 countries, the figure is less than 1%.

The sets of indicators on the costs of healthy diets are available at FAOSTAT which is the world's largest data platform on food and agriculture, with nearly 20,000 indicators covering more than 245 countries and territories. The data can now be easily viewed and available for download.

The cost and affordability of a healthy diet (CoAHD) is now institutionalized and regularly updated. It is a new benchmark for measuring the world's progress in making healthy eating affordable for all. The CoAHD initiative contributes to "better nutrition," one of the four goals of FAO's 2022-31 Strategic Framework - Bewtter Nutrition. The initiative is also part of FAO's commitment that it must generate evidence to advise countries on food and nutrition policies.

References
FAO. Global indicators on the costs of healthy diets and how many people can’t afford them. March 1, 2023. https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/global-indicators-on-the-costs-of-h…  (Accessed on March 6) 

Pick up 574. SOFI 2022: Repurposing Food and Agricultural Policies to Make Healthy Diets More Affordable
https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/program/proc/blog/20220707

Pick up 579. Key Messages of The State Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022
https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/program/proc/blog/20220714

Contributor: SHIRATORI Sakiko (Information and Public Relations Office)