Food Stress in Adelaide: The Relationship between Low Income and the Affordability of Healthy Food

Healthy food is becoming increasingly expensive, and families on low incomes face a difficult financial struggle to afford healthy food. When food costs are considered, families on low incomes often face circumstances of poverty. Housing, utilities, health care, and transport are somewhat fixed in cost; however food is more flexible in cost and therefore is often compromised with less healthy, cheaper food, presenting an opportunity for families on low incomes to cut costs. Using a “Healthy Food Basket” methodology, this study costed a week’s supply of healthy food for a range of family types. It found that low-income families would have to spend approximately 30% of household income on eating healthily, whereas high-income households needed to spend about 10%. The differential is explained by the cost of the food basket relative to household income (i.e., affordability). It is argued that families that spend more than 30% of household income on food could be experiencing “food stress.” Moreover the high cost of healthy foods leaves low-income households vulnerable to diet-related health problems because they often have to rely on cheaper foods which are high in fat, sugar, and salt. 1. Introduction People in low paying jobs, particularly those who have only casual employment, are underemployed, or are on a government pension for retirement, sickness, or acting as a carer, find a range of financial stressors confronting them, the most significant for this paper being food insecurity. As in many other countries, Australian consumers have had to accommodate to increases in costs of basic food [1]. During the financial years 2007-2008 alone, overall food prices rose by 3.9%, while some basic food prices rose more sharply: cheese by 14.2%, milk by 12.1%, poultry by 11.0%, and bread by 6.8% [2]. Food cost plays a significant role in mediating food choice among low socioeconomic status (SES) groups [1, 3, 4], who often have to cut back on food spending to make room for other essentials such as housing and utilities [5–8], leading to decreased food security [9]. This paper is predicated on the suggestion that the effects of food insecurity on families on low incomes may help to explain the higher prevalence of overweight in low-income populations. 1.1. Policy Context in Australia Food costs jumped into the political limelight prior to the Australian 2007 federal election, with voters demanding government action to reduce prices. To honour preelection promises, the newly elected Labor government initiated a national inquiry into grocery pricing soon after