The Regional Nutritionists and Community Dietitians in the Regional Health Authorities, in cooperation with of the Department of Health and Community Services and the NL Statistics Agency, collect pricing information for the Newfoundland and Labrador Nutritious Food Basket on an annual basis.
Communities are pre-selected based on population and availability of stores. Both large and small chain stores from each region are included in the pricing process.
Items in the food basket are priced at the lowest price available in the store in a specified purchase size, regardless of brand. The basket does not constitute a recommended diet. It is a tool for monitoring the cost of a nutritious diet. It has the advantage of being based on food purchasing patterns and therefore has some similarity to the foods generally purchased in the province.
Comparison between communities, urban/rural areas, or health regions is not recommended. The average prices used to generate the nutritious food basket costs are not straight average, and they do not reflect the relative market share (either in terms of volume or dollar sale) of the stores priced. The choice of stores in one community, in terms of market share, may be quite different from those in another, making area comparisons inappropriate. Discriminating costs between health regions are small.
Information about the cost of a nutritious food basket may be used to promote and support policies and programs which increase access to healthy foods.
2012-2017 Data
2011 data
Source: Department of Health & Community Services, Government of Newfoundland & Labrador
Collection Date: June 2011
2010 data
Source: Department of Health & Community Services, Government of Newfoundland & Labrador
Collection Date: June 2010
2009 data
