Development of the Spanish Healthy Food Reference Budget for an adequate social participation at the minimum

OBJECTIVE: It has been observed that diet quality and food choices vary depending on socio-economic status (SES), especially when measured through income and educational level. Although the reasons behind these differences are multiple, diet cost is a critical determinant in those groups that spend a higher proportion of their budget on food. Reference budgets are priced baskets containing the minimum goods and services necessary for well-described types of families to have an adequate social participation. In the current paper we describe the development and content of the Spanish Healthy Food Basket (SHFB). DESIGN: National dietary guidelines were translated into monthly food baskets. Next, these baskets were validated in terms of acceptability and feasibility through focus group discussions, and finally they were priced. SETTING: The focus group discussions and the pricing were performed in Barcelona, Spain. SUBJECTS: Twenty adults aged 30-50 years from different SES backgrounds and their children aged 2-22 years participated in three discussion groups. RESULTS: The SHFB complies with the dietary recommendations for the Spanish population. The monthly cost of this basket ranges from 131·63 € to 573·80 € depending on the type of family. CONCLUSIONS: The SHFB does not have the purpose of prescribing what people should eat, but of estimating a minimum budget threshold below which healthy eating is not possible for well-described types of families. Thus, the SHFB is an educative guide on how to plan a healthy food budget and orient policies designed to guarantee food access and reduce SES inequalities.