Food for the family

Press, 11 February 1981, Page 6

Food for the family

PA : Dunedin An adult couple with two pre-school children could expect to pay up to $55.25 a week on basic food, according to the latest figures by : the University of Otago’s department of university extension. The department has regularly surveyed retail food costs forjtlie last 12 years, using a basic ■ diet as outlined in the Health Department’s booklet, “Food for Health.” At the beginning of this month an adult couple and their two ; children could expect their weekly food bill to range from between $26.50 to $55.25, according to the type of diet. The department outlined four types of diet: basic, which is the less ex-

. pensive cuts of meat and more economical varieties of food; low, which includes buying specials and bulk buying; moderate, which has a wider variety of meat, fish, fruits or vegetables and the inclusion of a few non-basic food items such as flaked cereals and an allowance for between-meal snacks; and ' liberal, which includes convenience foods, imported, expensive cuts of meat, and food delicacies. Parents with two adolescents could pay between $58.25 and $121.25. An adult couple living on a low diet could pay $17.25, but this could rise to $36 a* week on a liberal diet. The basic weekly cost

of food for an adult man ranges from ■ $9.50 to $19.50 While a woman eats between $8 and $16.50 a week. ?An adolescent boy costs between $ll and $22.50 to fee’d and an adolescent girl between $9.50 and $19.75. The department ’said that the food cost estimates were based on a diet which would meet the nutritional needs of most people. Because individuals had different habits of shopping, storage, food preparation, and eating, food costs would vary. They could be more economical, a little higher, or liberal. . The department would not give comparative figures for the previous survey, completed in August.