DRAFT Australian Dietary Guidelines - Eat For Health

A diet consistent with the Guidelines is expensive for welfare-dependent families. An Australian
study found it cost around 40% of their disposable income compared with 20% for families on the
average income [138].
A7.3.2 Food security
Food security refers to the ability to access nutritious, affordable foods and the capacity to obtain
them. At an individual or family level, food insecurity can be characterised by running out of food
and being unable to afford to buy more. About 5% of the Australian population suffer food
insecurity in a year [1017-1019]. It is more common among:
the unemployed [1019]
Indigenous Australians [1020]
those living in single parent households [1019]
those in the second lowest income quintile [1019]
those living in rental households [1019]
younger than older people [1019]
women than men (in some surveys but not others) [1017, 1018].
Issues of food security in the face of rising food costs are of concern in Australia [140] (see
Section A7.3.1). For example, national Consumer Price Index data for the March 2011 quarter
indicates that the cost of food had increased by 2.9% and that, primarily due to impacts of flooding
in Queensland and Victoria and Cyclone Yasi in Queensland, the cost of fruit increased by 14.5%
and the cost of vegetables increased by 16.2% [1021].
There is an urgent need to nationally monitor and sustainably address the factors affecting the
price of nutritious foods, particularly for vulnerable groups who suffer a disproportionate burden
of poor health [140].
A7.3.3 Social distribution of intake of foods and nutrients
A7.3.3.1 Foods
The 1995 National Nutrition Survey [37] showed few systematic differences in food and nutrient
intake across quintiles of social disadvantage, as defined by SEIFA based on the 1991 census. Table
A7.1 shows the intake of various food groups across SEIFA quintiles from the NNS 1995.
DRAFT Australian Dietary Guidelines- December 2011 181