Food prices are collected by many organizations, but are not often used to understand the cost of nutritious food to meet dietary needs. In 2020, for the first time the UN State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report highlighted the cost and affordability of healthy diets. In this session, we share the techniques to generate these results, and offer tools for participants to calculate the Cost of a Healthy Diet from their own price datasets. This session mirrors training courses for the World Bank and national governments, currently under development within the Food Prices for Nutrition project.

Preparation materials:

• Food Prices for Nutrition website
• Herforth, A., Y. Bai, A. Venkat, K. Mahrt, A. Ebel & W.A. Masters (2020). Cost and affordability of healthy diets across and within countries. Background paper for the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020. FAO Agricultural Development Economics Technical Study No. 9. Rome: FAO.
• Bai, Y., E. Naumova and W.A. Masters (2020). Seasonality in diet costs reveals food system performance in East Africa. Science Advances, eabc2162.

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