Following last year’s soaring cost of living, Dietitians Australia has warned that we remain in the dark about the true extent of the national household-food-insecurity crisis.
The group’s acting chief executive Natalie Stapleton said millions of Australians relied on food relief and donations year-round as their main source of nutrition, and there was increasing anecdotal evidence that the number of people and families making cuts to their household food budgets appeared to be burgeoning.
“More and more individuals and families are choosing to change the food they eat, skip meals, or cut down their serving sizes, and what our members are reporting is food is often the first sacrifice made to manage household budgets,” Ms Stapleton said.
“We know there are many faces of household food insecurity in Australia, but we do not routinely monitor and collect data that paints a detailed picture.
“All Australians deserve access to affordable, nutritious foods, regardless of their income or postcode, and our members are telling us that this is not the reality for many of the people they work with.
Curtin University’s Associate Professor of Public Health Priorities Christina Pollard said several OECD countries collected population-level data to monitor the levels of food insecurity every year.
“Yet in Australia, we don’t. National food and nutrition survey data is collected infrequently and it’s not good enough — when it comes to access to population-level data on household food insecurity in this country, we’re working in the dark,” A/Professor Pollard said.
“Australia is unique as it suffers from a tyranny of distance; we know people living in remote areas pay more for food and have lower incomes, but food insecurity does not stop there; in every suburb, families are facing food stress.
“Without rigorous data on the true extent of household food insecurity in this country, policymakers find it hard to make informed decisions that drive meaningful change for Australians in need.”
Dietitians have called for a commitment from the Government to a national food and nutrition monitoring and surveillance system that includes producing at a minimum annual report on the severity of household food insecurity in the country.
“It’s promising the Parliament’s Standing Agriculture Committee’s Inquiry into Food Security in Australia report has recommended measuring household food insecurity at least every three years,” Ms Stapleton said.
“We will continue to advocate for the introduction of regular household food insecurity data collection to lift us out of the data darkness and build frameworks that support Australians with affordable and accessible nutritious food.”
In their recent submission to the Draft National Consumer Engagement Strategy for Health and Wellbeing, dietitians highlighted the role played by corporations and lobbyists in the design of government-based nutritional programs and the need for independent, medically informed policy.
“Companies producing unhealthy, nutrient poor foods and beverages, high in sodium, sugar, trans fats and saturated fats, influence all aspects of the food system from the quality of foods in the supply chain, to the environment in which food is made available, affordable and desirable,” the group said.
“The increasing impact of this influence has a negative effect on human and planetary health, and social and health inequities. It is well established that these products and practices are driving diet related noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, type-2 diabetes, and poor mental health.”