Public health researchers are concerned rising costs of living pressures could open the door to the same Victorian-era diseases that have been detected in the United Kingdom.

The price of food has been climbing since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and now consumers are paying up to 40 per cent more at the check-out for some items compared to last year.

Nutrition and dietetics professor Rebecca Golley said healthy foods becoming less affordable had led to a resurgence of Victorian-era diseases like scurvy and rickets in the UK and that similar issues were now starting to emerge in Australia.

Dr Golleywho leads the Caring Futures Institute at Flinders University, said Australian farmers grow more than enough vegetables to feed the nation, but on average people eat less than half the recommended five servings of vegetables per day.

She said campaigns simply telling people to eat more vegetables had been ineffective in addressing barriers to accessing fresh, healthy produce.

“There are issues around affordability and the lack of time and inspiration to really cook,” Dr Golley said.

Buy now, pay later?

University of Queensland emeritus public health professor Amanda Lee said it was becoming harder for people to afford healthy food options.

She contributed to a study published earlier this year that found prices for fruit, vegetables and legumes had increased by 12.8 per cent in 2022, compared to an increase of 9 per cent increase for less healthy options.

“We shouldn’t be surprised if we see a worsening of our national state [when the latest nutritional data is released in 2024],” Dr Lee said.

“This problem is just getting worse and isn’t going away.

“In reality we’re being asked to choose between ill-health later in life or our wallets now.”

Professor Lee said the problem of healthy food affordability in Australia was being caused by a confluence of factors.

“Consider the COVID pandemic, food supply chain disruptions, fuel prices, the war in Ukraine, floods and wildfires and climate change,” she said.

Public health boost

AUSVEG, the representative body for more than 3,600 vegetable growers, has made 20 recommendations to a federal government inquiry into food security, including the formation of a $100-million national strategy to increase fresh vegetable consumption.

AUSVEG public affairs national manager Lucy Gregg said increasing vegetable intake by just one serve per day would reduce health spending by $200m and provide more than $1 billion in returns to the food industry.

“Not only would it have an impact on public health if we could increase demand, but it would have a significant positive impact on growers if we could increase consumption,” he said.

Ms Gregg said worker shortages, wetter weather conditions with consecutive La Niña patterns, and the rising cost of chemicals and other production-related goods had driven higher vegetable prices.

Healthy habits for kids

To try to establish healthy eating habits among children, fresh produce industry body Hort Innovation Australia has teamed up with the Healthy Kids Association charity to increase the offer of vegetables at primary school canteens.

Healthy Kids Association dietitian Shadia Djakovic said Hort Innovation Australia had provided $1m in funding for the three-year project.

She said only six per cent of Australian children ate the recommended serving of vegetables per day.

“We will work with a partner in the food industry, to develop concepts for a ready-to-eat meal, based on vegetables to that will suit the needs of the school canteen,” Ms Djakovic said.

The program involves buying vegetables in bulk from co-ops and growers to reduce the sales price and make them more affordable for school canteens.

“School campaigns have a lack of labor with declining volunteer rates, so we need to think of how we can make it easier for them to add vegetables to the menu,” Ms Djakovic said.

She said the association had seen success in a small trial of the program in New South Wales, thanks to the support of CSIRO.

“We saw an improvement in the purchase of vegetables from the school canteen menu after changing it and making certain things look more appealing,” Ms Djakovic said.

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