IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v137y2025ics0306919225001186.html

Tracking the affordability of least-cost healthy diets helps guide intervention for food security and improved nutrition

Author

Listed:
  • Masters, William A.

Abstract

This Policy Comment describes how the Food Policy article entitled “Cost and affordability of nutritious diets at retail prices: Evidence from 177 countries” (first published October 2020) and “Retail consumer price data reveal gaps and opportunities to monitor food systems for nutrition” (first published September 2021) advanced the use of least-cost benchmark diets to monitor and improve food security. Those papers contributed to the worldwide use of least-cost diets as a new diagnostic indicator of food access, helping to distinguish among causes of poor diet quality related to high prices, low incomes, or displacement by other food options, thereby guiding intervention toward universal access to healthy diets.

Suggested Citation

  • Masters, William A., 2025. "Tracking the affordability of least-cost healthy diets helps guide intervention for food security and improved nutrition," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:137:y:2025:i:c:s0306919225001186
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102913
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919225001186
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102913?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert C. Allen, 2017. "Absolute Poverty: When Necessity Displaces Desire," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3690-3721, December.
    2. Schneider, Kate R., 2022. "Nationally representative estimates of the cost of adequate diets, nutrient level drivers, and policy options for households in rural Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    3. Xinxin Ma, 2024. "Minimum Wage and Wage Distribution," Springer Books, in: Labor Market Institutions in China, chapter 0, pages 43-80, Springer.
    4. Sánchez, Marco V. & Cicowiez, Martín, 2023. "Optimal allocation of agriculture’s public budget can improve transformation and healthy diets access in Ethiopia," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1262-1280.
    5. Bai, Yan & Costlow, Leah & Ebel, Alissa & Laves, Sarah & Ueda, Yurika & Volin, Natalie & Zamek, Maya & Herforth, Anna & Masters, William A., 2021. "Review: Retail consumer price data reveal gaps and opportunities to monitor food systems for nutrition," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    6. Headey, Derek & Hirvonen, Kalle & Alderman, Harold, 2024. "Estimating the cost and affordability of healthy diets: How much do methods matter?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    7. Gilbert, Rachel & Costlow, Leah & Matteson, Julia & Rauschendorfer, Jakob & Krivonos, Ekaterina & Block, Steven A. & Masters, William A., 2024. "Trade policy reform, retail food prices and access to healthy diets worldwide," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    8. Stehl, Jonas & Depenbusch, Lutz & Vollmer, Sebastian, 2025. "Global poverty and the cost of a healthy diet," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    9. Tomas Brodin & Michael G. Bertram & Kathryn E. Arnold & Alistair B. A. Boxall & Bryan W. Brooks & Daniel Cerveny & Manuela Jörg & Karen A. Kidd & Unax Lertxundi & Jake M. Martin & Lauren T. May & Erin, 2024. "The urgent need for designing greener drugs," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(8), pages 949-951, August.
    10. William A. Masters & Jessica K. Wallingford & Anna W. Herforth & Yan Bai, 2025. "Measuring Food Access as Affordability of Least‐Cost Healthy Diets Worldwide," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 56(3), pages 360-372, May.
    11. George J. Stigler, 1945. "The Cost of Subsistence," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 303-314.
    12. Robert C. Allen, 2017. "Absolute Poverty: When Necessity Displaces Desire REVISED," Working Papers 20170005, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jun 2017.
    13. Raghunathan, Kalyani & Headey, Derek & Herforth, Anna, 2021. "Affordability of nutritious diets in rural India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ameye, Hannah & Hülsen, Vivien & Glatzel, Katrin & Laar, Amos & Qaim, Matin, 2025. "Urbanizing food environments in Africa: Challenges and opportunities for improving accessibility, affordability, convenience, and desirability of healthy diets," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stehl, Jonas & Depenbusch, Lutz & Vollmer, Sebastian, 2025. "Global poverty and the cost of a healthy diet," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Headey, Derek & Bachewe, Fantu & Marshall, Quinn & Raghunathan, Kalyani & Mahrt, Kristi, 2024. "Food prices and the wages of the poor: A cost-effective addition to high-frequency food security monitoring," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    3. Bai, Yan & Costlow, Leah & Ebel, Alissa & Laves, Sarah & Ueda, Yurika & Volin, Natalie & Zamek, Maya & Herforth, Anna & Masters, William A., 2021. "Review: Retail consumer price data reveal gaps and opportunities to monitor food systems for nutrition," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    4. Schneider, Kate R., 2022. "Nationally representative estimates of the cost of adequate diets, nutrient level drivers, and policy options for households in rural Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    5. Bai, Yan & Alemu, Robel & Block, Steven A. & Headey, Derek & Masters, William A., 2021. "Cost and affordability of nutritious diets at retail prices: Evidence from 177 countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    6. Decerf, Benoit, 2025. "On the properties of the two main types of global poverty lines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    7. William A. Masters & Jessica K. Wallingford & Anna W. Herforth & Yan Bai, 2025. "Measuring Food Access as Affordability of Least‐Cost Healthy Diets Worldwide," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 56(3), pages 360-372, May.
    8. Decerf,Benoit Marie A, 2023. "An Axiomatic Study Contrasting the Two Main Poverty Line Rules," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10519, The World Bank.
    9. Martin Ravallion, 2020. "On Measuring Global Poverty," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 167-188, August.
    10. Headey, Derek & Hirvonen, Kalle & Alderman, Harold, 2024. "Estimating the cost and affordability of healthy diets: How much do methods matter?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    11. Balint Menyhert, 2024. "Absolute Poverty Measurement with Minimum Food Needs: A New Inverse Method for Advanced Economies," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 313-351, August.
    12. Schneider, Kate & Christiaensen, Luc & Webb, Patrick & Masters, William A., 2021. "Availability, Seasonality, and Affordability of Nutritious Diets for All – Evidence from Malawi," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315036, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Ameye, Hannah & De Weerdt, Joachim & Gibson, John, 2021. "Measuring macro- and micronutrient consumption in multi-purpose surveys: Evidence from a survey experiment in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    14. Hannah Ameye & Joachim De Weerdt & John Gibson, 2020. "Measuring macro- and micronutrient intake in multi-purpose surveys: evidence from a survey experiment in Tanzania," Working Papers of LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance 655016, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance.
    15. Boško Mijatović & Branko Milanović, 2021. "The real urban wage in an agricultural economy without landless farmers: Serbia, 1862–1910," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(2), pages 424-448, May.
    16. Benoit Decerf, 2021. "Combining absolute and relative poverty: income poverty measurement with two poverty lines," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 56(2), pages 325-362, February.
    17. Vincent Geloso & Peter Lindert, 2020. "Relative costs of living, for richer and poorer, 1688–1914," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(3), pages 417-442, September.
    18. Bruce D. Meyer & Derek Wu & Victoria R. Mooers & Carla Medalia, 2019. "The use and misuse of income data and extreme poverty in the United States," AEI Economics Working Papers 1018925, American Enterprise Institute.
    19. Milan Zafirovski, 2022. "Some dilemmas of economic democracy: Indicators and empirical analysis," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(1), pages 252-302, February.
    20. Baki Guney Isikara, 2018. "The Weight of Essentials in Economic Activity," Working Papers 1814, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:137:y:2025:i:c:s0306919225001186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.