Estimating the Cost of the Spanish Sustainable Food Basket through the Reference Budgets Approach

Abstract

Reference budgets (RB) are illustrative priced baskets containing the minimum goods and services necessary for well-described types of families to have adequate social participation. Cross-country comparable food RB with the minimum cost were previously developed in 26 EU countries. However, sustainability was not considered. The aim of this paper is to present the development of healthy and sustainable food baskets for Spanish adults. This work follows the steps proposed in previous European projects to build RB: (1) revision of guidelines on healthy and sustainable eating and expert consultations, (2) translation into a concrete list of foods, (3) pricing. The results indicate that a sustainable diet can be cheaper than current recommendations when only the dietary content is considered, representing monthly savings of about EUR 7.27. This is mainly explained by the shift towards more plant-based proteins. Adding constraints on origin, packaging and seasonality increases the overall cost of the food basket by EUR 12.22/month compared with current recommendations. The Spanish Sustainable Food Reference Budget illustrates the cost of applying different criteria to improve dietary sustainability in the Spanish context, and can be useful to support the ecological transition, since providing different levels of adherence to a sustainable dietary pattern can ease its access across socioeconomic groups.

A Systematic Review on Food Baskets Recommended in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

“…A shift towards plant-based foods, especially whole grains, legumes, and nuts, along withareduction in the level of meat with the exception of fish, is a characteristic of these baskets, which is consistent with the EAT-Lancet report [70,71]. Some of these sustainable baskets consider proximity, packaging, and seasonalitycriteria to stress environmentally friendly food consumption, too [69].…”

“…IntheWestern Mediterranean region, updating the Spanish Healthy Food Reference Budget (SHFRB) to include the dimensionof sustainability resulted in a sustainable basket cheaper than current recommendations [69]. A shift towards plant-based foods, especially whole grains, legumes, and nuts, along withareduction in the level of meat with the exception of fish, is a characteristic of these baskets, which is consistent with the EAT-Lancet report [70,71].…”

“…Healthy food baskets (HFBs) are constructed based on the cost of basic healthy eating that represents current nutrition recommendations and average food purchasing patterns to monitor both the affordability and accessibility of foods. They can address and analyze diet-related health inequalities [7][8][9], and a commitment to using their results could promote a healthy diet at minimal cost for vulnerable groups [10,11]. On the other hand, according to the latest data on environmental degradation, sustainable diets can be achieved through HFB designing, too [12].…”

Shifts at the margin of European welfare states: How important is food aid in complementing inadequate minimum incomes?

“…This article is the first multi-country case study to estimate the monetary value of food aid in relation to statutory minimum incomes. We apply recent cross-nationally comparable food reference budgets (Carrillo-Álvarez et al, 2023) to price food aid packages in twelve local food charities in Belgium, Finland, Hungary and Spain. Furthermore, we assess how successful food aid might be in filling the gap of inadequate safety nets.…”

Developing a Mediterranean Healthy Food Basket and an Updated Australian Healthy Food Basket Modelled on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating

“…One explanation for the lack of development of MedDiet baskets could be due to the perceived cost of following a MedDiet considering it contains expensive components such as extra virgin olive oil, oily fish, and nuts. International researchers have used Mediterranean Diet food modelling, but typically in the context of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (CO 2 , CH 4 , NH 3, and N 2 O) and improving the environmental impact through dietary choices aligning with a Mediterranean Diet [ 19 , 20 ], and not in the context of food baskets. Therefore, we aim to address this gap and provide greater feasibility of following a MedDiet in Australia in terms of cost and nutritional value.…”