How has the cost of feeding New Zealand children well changed from 2018 to 2023? Monthly price changes of a modelled lower-cost healthy diet.

ABSTRACT: New Zealand (NZ) specific research assessing price changes of accessible lower-cost foods which also meet healthy eating guidelines for children is sparse. We aimed to develop an Excel™ tool to retrospectively assess weekly costs of commonly purchased lower-cost foods for children and households from 2018, and update in close to real-time. Lower-cost foods from the monthly reports from StatsNZ were grouped into food baskets that met eating guidelines, nutrient and energy requirements by age and sex. Repeated iterations created healthy food baskets from 62 lower-cost foods, prices were tracked, and costs for households and individuals were compared to household income. For a household of two adults and two children of fixed age (7y female, 14y male), substantial (27%) increases in the price

SUBMITTER: Strom J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12315162 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature