Vatsa Puneet, Renwick Alan
Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce and Centre of Excellence in Transformative Agribusiness, Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand.
J R Soc N Z. 2024 Jun 19;55(6):2305-2318. doi: 10.1080/03036758.2024.2368788. eCollection 2025.
There are ongoing concerns about food security, particularly around food affordability and the nutritional quality of diets in New Zealand. While recent food price inflation has sparked conversations about overall affordability, less attention has been directed toward understanding how variations in price increases across different food categories might impact nutrition and health. Using data from Statistics New Zealand on the prices of 85 food items between 2014 and 2023, we estimated 12-month moving averages of relative real prices of sweetened foods vis-à-vis those of five other food categories: dairy, fruits, vegetables, processed meats, and unprocessed meats. Non-parametric Mann-Kendall tests and linear regressions were used to assess the trends in relative food prices. The data show that sweetened foods have become relatively inexpensive over this period. On the premise that both absolute and relative prices are important in determining dietary choices and that these choices impact health, we consider the possible negative implications of these trends. Possible reasons for the recent trends and policies to meet the challenges they pose are discussed.
人们一直对粮食安全感到担忧，尤其是在新西兰，围绕粮食可负担性和饮食的营养质量。虽然近期食品价格通胀引发了关于总体可负担性的讨论，但对于不同食品类别价格上涨的差异如何影响营养和健康，关注较少。利用新西兰统计局2014年至2023年期间85种食品价格的数据，我们估算了甜味食品相对于其他五类食品（乳制品、水果、蔬菜、加工肉类和未加工肉类）的相对实际价格的12个月移动平均值。使用非参数曼-肯德尔检验和线性回归来评估相对食品价格的趋势。数据显示在此期间甜味食品变得相对便宜。基于绝对价格和相对价格在决定饮食选择中都很重要且这些选择会影响健康这一前提，我们考虑了这些趋势可能带来的负面影响。讨论了近期趋势的可能原因以及应对这些趋势所带来挑战的政策。
