Dietary Costs among Midwestern Adult Food-Pantry Users by Food-Security Status

Evidence of the relationship between dietary cost, diet quality, and socio-economic status is mixed. No studies have directly evaluated food-security status and dietary cost. This study investigated whether food-pantry clients with low and very low food-security status had less expensive daily diets than food-secure clients by comparing total cost, cost per gram, and cost per calorie of total daily dietary intake both per person and by individual food item, followed by evaluations of each food group. Mixed-model regression and Tukey–Kramer comparisons were used to compare food-security groups. There was no clear association between food-security status and cost of daily diet. Analyzed per person, total price and price per gram showed significant differences between low food-secure and food-secure groups. When analyzing individual food items, prices per calorie were significantly different between food-secure and very low food-secure groups. The directionality of the relationships by food-security status was inconsistent. Per person, those with lower food security had lower mean prices, and for individual foods this association was reversed. Therefore, the metric of food cost and the unit of analysis are critical to determining the relationship between food-security status and dietary cost.