Food prices and affordability

Price is one of the most important influences on what foods people choose to buy. Affordability of healthy food is critical to ensuring population health equity, and to addressing food security. Accordingly, it is essential to monitor the cost and affordability of foods, with a focus on the prices of healthy, compared with unhealthy, foods and diets.

Indicator	Result	What was measured?	Source
Current spend on unhealthy food and drinks as a proportion of total amount spent on food**	Queensland: 60% Brisbane: 58% Sydney: 58% Canberra: 58% Rural Victoria: 60% Greater Melbourne: 60% Remote Aboriginal communities: 50% Northwest Tasmania: 60%	Cost of total, healthy and discretionary components of dietary intake reported in the Australian Health Survey 2011-13, for a family of two adults and two children per fortnight. Compared with ABS ADG Price Index data	Lee, Patay et al. (2021) Lewis, Herron et al (2023) Lee, Kane et al. (2020) Love et al. (2018) Herath, Murray et al. (2023) Greater Melbourne (unpublished)
Cost of a healthy diet relative to the cost of current dietˆ
High socioeconomic urban areas	Queensland: 19% less expensive Sydney: 18% less expensive Canberra: 18% less expensive	Cost of recommended diet consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines for family of two adults and two children per fortnight, relative to cost of current diet, in high SEIFA-quintile areas	Lee, Patay et al. (2021) Lee, Lewis, et al. (2020) Lee, Kane et al. (2020)
Low socioeconomic areas	Queensland: 19% less expensive Sydney: 19% less expensive Canberra: 18% less expensive Rural Victoria: 19% less expensive Tasmania: 16-22% less expensive	Cost of recommended diet consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines for family of two adults and two children per fortnight, relative to cost of current diet, in low-SEIFA-quintile areas	Lee, Patay et al. (2021) Dean, Lewis et al. (2025) Lee, Kane et al. (2020) Love et al. (2018) Herath et al. (2023)
Data drawn from a mix of socioeconomic areas (low, middle and high)	Brisbane: 21% less expensive Illawarra: 18% less expensive	Cost of recommended diet consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines for family of two adults and two children per fortnight, relative to cost of current diet, in locations classified as SEIFA quintiles 1, 3 and 5.	Lewis, Nash et al. (2024) Dean, Lweis et al. (2025)
Very remote areasˆˆ	Queensland: 24% less expensive Torres Strait Islands: 17% less expensive Remote Aboriginal communities: 16% less expensive	Cost of recommended diet consistent with the Australian Dietary Guidelines for family of two adults and two children per fortnight, relative to cost of current diet, in different locations	Lee, Patay et al. (2021) Lee, Lewis, et al. (2020) Summons et al. (2020) Lee and Lewis (2018)
Cost of healthy diet as a proportion of incomeˆ
Welfare dependent households	Brisbane – 37% Sydney – 35% Illawarra – 34% Remote communities Central Australia – 46-57%	Cost of recommended diet as a proportion of indicative disposable household income	Lewis, Nash et al. (2024) Fishlock, Gibbons et al. (2025) Dean, Lewis et al. (2025) Lee, Rainow et al. (2024)
Low-income groups	Queensland: 27% Sydney: 26-28% Canberra: 28%	Cost of recommended diet as a proportion of indicative disposable household income	Lee, Patay et al. (2021) Lee, Lewis, et al. (2020) Lee, Kane et al. (2020)
Low-income groups – rural and very remote areasˆˆ	Queensland: 34% Torres Strait Islands: 36% Remote Aboriginal communities: 39% Rural Victoria: 32%	Cost of recommended diet as a proportion of indicative disposable household income	Lee, Patay et al. (2021) Lee and Lewis (2018) Summons et al. (2020) Lee, Lewis, et al. (2020) Love et al (2018)
Median-income groups	Queensland: 21% Canberra: 18%	Cost of recommended diet as a proportion of gross median household income	Lee, Patay et al. (2021) Lee, Lewis, et al. (2020) Lee, Kane et al. (2020)
	Sydney: 32% Rural Victoria: 30%	Cost of recommended diet as a proportion of gross median household income	Lee, Kane et al. (2020) Love et al (2018)
Cost of a healthy diet per fortnight for a family of fourˆ	Brisbane: $757 Sydney: $765 Illawarra: $776 Remote communities Central Australia: $935	Cost of recommended diet consistent with Australian Dietary Guidelines for family of two adults and two children per fortnight, in different locations	Lewis, Nash et al. (2024) Fishlock, Gibbons et al. (2025) Dean, Lewis et al. (2025) Lee, Rainow et al. (2024)
Price promotions in supermarkets
Average discount on unhealthy versus healthy foods	25.9% vs 15.4%	Weekly online price data for food and beverages from the largest Australian supermarket chain over 1 year (2017-2018)	Riesenberg et al. (2019)

* Green = ‘Promotes health’; Amber = ‘Needs further improvement to promote health’; Red = ‘Unhealthy’. Refer to Indicator Assessment Criteria at the bottom of the page.

** The term ‘unhealthy foods’ refers to discretionary foods. The Australian Dietary Guidelines describes discretionary foods as foods and drinks not necessary to provide the nutrients the body needs, but that may add variety. Many discretionary foods are energy dense and high in saturated fats, added sugars and/or sodium. The recommendations are that discretionary foods can be consumed sometimes in small amounts by those who are physically active, but are not a necessary part of the diet.

ˆ The current diet includes the type and quantity of food and drinks for a reference household of two adults and two children per fortnight, based on intakes reported in the most recent national nutrition survey. The healthy diet reflects the recommendations of the Australian Dietary Guidelines, and comprises the healthy food and drinks commonly consumed in the current diet in optimal quantities. The healthy diet is more equitable and more sustainable than the current diet.

ˆˆ In some of the very remote regions surveyed, local level nutrition policies were in place to increase affordability of healthy foods e.g. community store pricing policies that reduced the price of fresh fruit, vegetables and water.

Key Findings

Under current policy settings in Australia, the current (unhealthy) diet is more expensive than the recommended (healthy) diet in all surveyed locations, regardless of the level of disadvantage or remoteness. However, healthy, recommended diets are not affordable for low socioeconomic groups or those living in very remote locations.
The costs of both current and recommended diets are highest in very remote areas in Australia. The differential cost of current and healthy, recommended diets is greatest in the very remote areas where store nutrition policies are in place.
Households in all socioeconomic and geographical areas are driven by the current food environment to spend the majority of their food budget (around 60%) on unhealthy food and drinks.
When household income for welfare dependent families increased due to the coronavirus economic support package in 2020, purchasing a healthy diet became 29% more affordable than previously (Lee, Patay et al. (2021))
Many households purchase generic branded foods (also known as home brands or private labels) to reduce expenditure on food. Two studies (Lewis, Nash et al. (2024) and Fishlock, Gibbons et al. (2025)) that assessed dietary costs using baskets containing generic branded foods found the cost of a habitual diet was reduced by 35–37% and cost of a recommended diet decreased by 30–32%. This resulted in the cost of recommended diets becoming relatively more expensive compared to habitual diets when cheapest options were chosen, which may partly explain common perceptions that recommended diets are too expensive.

Note: To better understand and inform policy action on food price and affordability in Australia, the Healthy Diets Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing (ASAP) method protocol and online tool were developed to compare the cost, cost differential and affordability of current (unhealthy) and recommended (healthy, more equitable and more sustainable) diets in Australia. The protocol was finalised through collaborative co-design with over 30 key stakeholders at a national diet cost forum in 2016. Unlike many other indicators of the healthiness of food environments, food prices vary by store outlet, location and time, hence summarising results can be challenging. Healthy Diets ASAP has been applied in different geographical and socioeconomic locations at different times.

Recommended (healthy) diet vs current (unhealthy) diet as per the Healthy Diets (ASAP) protocol

The current diet includes the type and quantity of food and drinks for a reference household of two adults and two children per fortnight, based on intakes reported in the most recent national nutrition survey. The recommended diet is healthy, more equitable and more sustainable than the current diet. It reflects the recommendations of the Australian Dietary Guidelines, and comprises the healthy food and drinks commonly consumed in the current diet in optimal quantities.

Key Recommendations

To improve population diet and health, urgent policy action is needed to increase household income and/or reduce the price of healthy foods, especially in low socioeconomic and very remote areas.
Increasing income of welfare dependent and low-income households (e.g. sustaining supplements introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic) would increase the affordability of healthy, equitable and sustainable diets, and hence improve food security, in Australia.
In very remote communities, funding of community stores as essential services, and subsidising freight and in-store price of healthy foods, would increase the affordability of healthy, equitable and sustainable diets.
More effort is needed to counter the perception that healthy, equitable and sustainable diets are more expensive than unhealthy diets, to help encourage healthier choices.
Healthy food and drinks should remain exempt from GST in Australia. Rather than expand the base of the GST, consideration should be given to increasing the GST (eg. from 10% to 20%) on unhealthy food and drinks.
Comprehensive monitoring of food environments, including national assessment of diet costs and affordability, is essential to inform and support policy action to improve population diet and reduce the burden of non-communicable disease in Australia.

For more information

Journal Articles

Dean, S., Lewis, M., Walton, K., et al. (2025). Where Cost of Food Hits Hardest: Investigation of Diet Cost and Affordability in a Low Socioeconomic Region of Australia. Health Prom J Aust 36(4): e70092.
Fishlock, K., Gibbons, S., Walton, K., Kent, K., Lewis, M. and Charlton, K.E. (2025). Affordability of Habitual (Unhealthy) and Recommended (Healthy) Diets in the Illawarra Using the Healthy Diets ASAP Protocol. Int J Environ Res & Pub Health 22(5):768
Hawkes C, Ambikapathi R, Anastasiou K, Brock J, Castronuovo L, Fallon N, Malapit H, Ndumi A, Samuel F, Umugwaneza M, Wanjohi MN. (2022) From food price crisis to an equitable food system. The Lancet. 2022 Aug 6;400(10350):413-6.
Herath MP, Murray S, Lewis M, Holloway TP, Hughes R, Jayasinghe S, Soward R, Patterson KAE, Byrne NM, Lee AJ, Hills AP, Ahuja KDK. (2023) Habitual Diets Are More Expensive than Recommended Healthy Diets. Nutrients. 2023 Sep 8;15(18):3908
Lee AJ, Patay D, Herron L-M, Parnell Harrison E and Lewis M. Affordability of current, and healthy, more equitable, sustainable diets by area of socioeconomic disadvantage and remoteness in Queensland: Insights into food choice. Int J Equity Health 20, 153 (2021)
Lee AJ, Rainow S, Balmer L, Hutchinson R, Bryce S, Lewis M, et al. (2024) Making it on the breadline – improving food security on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, Central Australia. BMC Public Health. 24(1):3087.
Lee, A.J., Kane, S., Herron, L.M., Matsuyama, M., & Lewis, M. (2020). A tale of two cities: the cost, price-differential and affordability of current and healthy diets in Sydney and Canberra, Australia. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act, 17, 80.
Lee, A., & Lewis, M. (2018). Testing the Price of Healthy and Current Diets in Remote Aboriginal Communities to Improve Food Security: Development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) Methods. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15, 2912.
Lewis M, Nash S, Lee AJ. (2024) Cost and Affordability of Habitual and Recommended Diets in Welfare-Dependent Households in Australia. Nutrients. 16(5):659.
Lewis M, Herron L-M, Chatfield MD, Tan RC, Dale A, Nash S, et al. (2023). Healthy Food Prices Increased More Than the Prices of Unhealthy Options during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Concurrent Challenges to the Food System. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 20(4):3146.
Lewis M, Herron LM, Chatfield MD, Tan RC, Dale A, Nash S, Lee AJ. Healthy Food Prices Increased More Than the Prices of Unhealthy Options during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Concurrent Challenges to the Food System. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 10;20(4):3146.
Looi ESY, Backholer B, Cameron AJ, Grigsby-Duffy L, Orellana L, Sacks G (2022). Price promotions offered by quick service restaurants in Australia: analysis from an obesity prevention perspective. Public Health Nutr. 2022 Mar;25(3):513-527.
Love, P., Whelan, J., Bell, C., Grainger, F., Russell, C., Lewis, M., et al. (2018). Healthy Diets in Rural Victoria – Cheaper than unhealthy alternatives, yet unaffordable. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 15, 2469.
Riesenberg D, Backholer K, Zorbas C, Sacks G, Paix A, Marshall J, Blake MR, Bennett R, Peeters A, Cameron AJ. (2019) Price promotions by food category and product healthiness in an Australian supermarket chain, 2017–2018. American journal of public health. 2019 Oct;109(10):1434-9.

Reports

Lee A, Lewis M, Herron L, Patay D. (2020) Summary Results Brief: Healthy, Equitable and Sustainable Diets: Cost and Affordability in Queensland. 2020.
Summons S, Lewis M, Patay D, Nona F, Herron L, Ferguson M, et al. (2020) Summary Results Brief. Cost and affordability of healthy, sustainable and equitable diets in the Torres Strait Islands. 2020.

Media

Indicator Assessment Criteria
Metric
Current spend on unhealthy (discretionary) food and drinks as a proportion of total amount spent on food	< 5%	5-29%	≥ 30%
Cost of a healthy diet relative to the cost of current diet	Recommended (healthy) diet less expensive than current (unhealthy) diet	No difference in price	Recommended (healthy) diet more expensive than current (unhealthy) diet
Cost of healthy diet as a proportion of income*	< 25%	≥ 25-29%	≥ 30%
Average discount on unhealthy (discretionary) versus healthy foods (supermarkets)	No discretionary food and drink price promotions	Price promotions for healthy food > discretionary food	Price promotions for discretionary food > healthy food

*Food stress occurs when diets cost more than 25% of household income; healthy diets are unaffordable when they cost more than 30% of household income (1, 2).

Note: Monitoring absolute costs over time will be adjusted by Consumer Price Index (food).

(1) Ward PR, Verity F, Carter P, Tsourtos G, Coveney J, Wong KC. Food stress in Adelaide: the relationship between low income and the affordability of healthy food. J Environ Public Health. 2013:968078.
(2) Lee AJ, Kane S, Lewis M, Good E, Pollard CM, Landrigan TJ, et al. Healthy diets ASAP – Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing methods protocol. Nutrition Journal. 2018;17(1):88.