Less than four percent of Australians consume a healthy, equitable and sustainable diet consistent with the NHMRC Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADGs). Poor diet is a leading contributor to the burden of disease, with many diet-related chronic conditions mediated by obesity. A major challenge is high intake of discretionary/ultra- processed foods, primarily driven by the ubiquitous availability, promotion, and convenience, of these products. Food security is essential to help improve population nutrition but is experienced inequitably throughout Australia. In particular, healthy diets are unaffordable for many groups, including low socio-economic households (SEGs), those living in remote areas, and First Nations’ communities. Until recently, granular data on diet affordability in different groups in Australia were lacking; such data are essential to inform policy and practice to improve food security and dietary inequities.
Drawing on practical examples using such data, this presentation will outline efforts to equitably improve physical and economic access to healthy foods. It will focus on development of novel benchmarking tools for monitoring and surveillance, and co-designed project development, implementation, review and translation of results to inform policy and practice. More generally, key barriers and enablers affecting policy development, implementation and evaluation will be presented. Finally, current opportunities and recommendations will be identified to stimulate discussion.