A tree-based approach to identify indispensable foods in minimum-cost food baskets.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Optimization techniques, such as linear programming, can be used to estimate the minimum cost of a nutrient-adequate food basket, to determine if individuals or households can afford nutritious diets. These cost estimates typically account for seasonal fluctuations but often overlook significant disruptions in the availability of affordable nutritious food that can severely impact food and nutrition security.

Methods

This paper proposes a tree-based method, the binary search tree, to assess the resilience of the cost estimate of the minimum-cost food basket. In particular, this method aims to identify indispensable foods in these baskets - those whose unavailability would lead to a substantial cost increase. The binary search tree operates by iteratively excludi

SUBMITTER: Koenen MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11445006 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature