Is a healthy diet affordable and accessible in the city of Yarra, Victoria Australia? An analysis of cost disparity and nutritional choices

This study aimed to examine cost disparity and nutritional choices within the<br />City of Yarra (Yarra), targeting three suburbs that have low- and high-rise<br />estates: Richmond, Fitzroy, and Collingwood. The healthy food basket<br />(HFB) was modeled on the Queensland Healthy Food Access Basket for a<br />six-person family for a fortnight and was constructed to include food items<br />that are common to ethnic groups living in Yarra. The HFB food item costs<br />were sampled across 29 food outlets in Yarra. The average cost of HFB per fortnight<br />for a family of six was significantly lower in Richmond (Mean = $419.26)<br />than in Collingwood (Mean = $519.28) and in Fitzroy (Mean = $433.98). While<br />costs for cereal groups, dairy, meats and alternatives, and non-core were<br />comparable across the suburbs, significant differences were noticed for fruit,<br />legumes and vegetables. Geographic location alone explained 54% of the<br />variance in HFB price (F_2,26 = 15.23, p < 0.001) and 32.7% in the variance of<br />fruit, vegetable and legumes (F_2,26 = 7.72, p < 0.001). The effect of geographic<br />location remained consistent after controlling for the type of food<br />outlets. The type of food outlets had a non-significant effect on the variance<br />of prices. Richmond had a greater number variety of fruit, vegetables, and<br />legumes (F_{2, 26} = 5.7, p < 0.01) and an overall lower number of missing items<br />(F_{2, 26} = 3.9, p < 0.05) than Collingwood and Fitzroy. The diversity of food<br />available in the three suburbs was more likely to reflect the Vietnamese,<br />Chinese and East-Timorese shopping pattern than the rest of other ethnic<br />