Despite strong food production in Australia and food availability in many communities, a growing number of Australians are affected by food insecurity. Food is a fundamental human right and need, and is critical for maintaining public health, wellbeing and a prosperous society.

Media coverage, community reports and cross-sectional studies in specific regions and population groups have highlighted this issue. However, unlike many other high-income countries, Australian governments at all levels do not integrate food security into their welfare and health surveillance systems, nor do they regularly and robustly monitor and report on food insecurity outcomes. Australia has a big food security data gap.

Understanding food security and insecurity

Food security is achieved when everyone in a population has consistent physical, social and economic access to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food, without resorting to coping strategies such as scavenging or relying on emergency food relief.

For food security to be established, a range of six interrelated factors must be present, including:

• Food availability and accessibility.
• Utilisation (ways that households use their physical, social, cultural and human resources to transform procured food into meals).
• Stability (the stability of all factors overtime and that they not change due to stressors such as natural disasters, recessions and pandemics).
• Agency (the capacity for people to make decision about food and how it accessed).
• Sustainability.

Food insecurity occurs when one or more of these conditions are not met, which is a growing concern across high-income countries.

The current cost of living crisis, including increasing costs of food, is a contributor to food insecurity. Other individual and household-level factors that are increasing risks of food insecurity include unemployment and underemployment, family violence, chronic physical and mental health conditions and housing stress. Natural disasters, pandemics and periods of rapid inflation can also disrupt food supply chains, leading to instability in food availability and affordability. The consequent food insecurity that people experience ranges from being worried about putting food on the table, to eating food of poor quality and low variety, to skipping meals and experiencing hunger.

Understanding the prevalence of household food insecurity in Australia matters because it is a powerful social determinant of health. People experiencing food insecurity are more likely to have poor quality diets and experience chronic physical and mental health problems. These poor nutrition and health outcomes are relevant throughout pregnancy, childhood and adulthood.

Such preventable outcomes have profound influences on the health of Australians and the country's health system. However, due to a lack of regular and robust data on food insecurity, this remains underexplored in the Australian context. Moreover, it is well understood that inaction on food insecurity incurs broader societal costs related to health, education, crime and social cohesion.

Food security measurement in Australia

Internationally, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) collects data for international comparison and monitoring using an eight-item tool, the Food Insecurity Experience Scale. However, it samples only a thousand participants in Australia and is not a nationally representative sample, potentially missing at-risk populations (e.g., First Nations, remote communities).

Despite the salience of this issue, national household food security prevalence estimates by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) are more than a decade old. Unmeasured, the prevalence of food insecurity remains largely unknown. Many policymakers, academics and communities are waiting for the National Nutrition and Physical Activity Surveys to be published by the ABS (that will include adult food security data), which are due to be released in 2025.

Currently, the only food security data routinely collected on an annual basis in Australia is by the charity with responsibility for distributing food nationally. While this data is useful, this naturally generates concerns of a (real or perceived) conflict of interest. Monitoring and surveillance that are truly representative of the population are the role of governments. Food security data is needed across national, state and local levels to inform policy and practice responses.

The lack of adequate and robust data hinders policymakers’ understanding of the extent of the problem, its determinants and consequences. This, then, prevents effective action by governments to prevent and manage food insecurity. By better understanding the prevalence and severity of food insecurity, and the specific challenges and needs of different population groups, policymakers can develop targeted interventions that address the root causes of food insecurity and prevent its occurrence.

Comprehensive timely surveillance and reporting for policymaking

An effective policy response requires Australia to implement a comprehensive surveillance system that provides timely and accurate data on the state of food security across the nation, including for every household member. The adoption and inclusion of the 10-question adult United States Food Security Survey Module by the ABS in the 2023 National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nutrition and Physical Survey is undoubtedly a step in the right direction but only just the beginning.

The ten questions on food security will effectively measure the severity (marginal, moderate or severe) of food insecurity in households with adults. Crucially, however, it overlooks the experience of food insecurity in children. Incorporating the 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module, rather than the 10-item adult module, would gather data on the experience of Australia’s adults and children. Children stand to benefit the most from household food security, which supports their growth and development. Understanding the extent of childhood food insecurity is key to developing targeted interventions.

Collecting data on adults and children within the household will immensely improve the information available to policymakers. Completing the 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module – also used in the US, Canada and the UK – takes between two and four minutes (for severely food insecure households). It includes screening questions, meaning the majority of participants answer only a few questions and therefore the respondent burden is low.

Implementing better food security measurement

We support the recommendation from 2023’s federal parliamentary inquiry into Australian food security for the implementation of routine surveillance. Annual or biennial data collection will provide policymakers with more up-to-date and actionable insights into food security trends. Delivering on this recommendation is essential. Expanding the scope of monitoring to include households with children is imperative.

To overcome the siloed nature of responses to food insecurity and to better link food insecurity with multiple outcomes, the Household Food Security Survey Module should be incorporated into additional population-level ABS surveys and reports.

For example, the food security questions could be included in population-wide housing, welfare, family, social services or health surveys (e.g., the National Health Survey, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, the General Social Survey or “Australia’s Welfare” conducted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare). This will enable Australia to monitor food insecurity prevalence and severity, while providing a repository of data for linkage across systems.

There are also opportunities for robust questions to be added to current and future longitudinal studies, such as: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, the Intergenerational Health and Mental Health Study, the Status of Women Report Card, and The Building a New Life in Australia (BNLA) study.

Better data and evidence could facilitate a deeper understanding of the impact of food security on holistic health, wellbeing and welfare more generally. Given the complexities of food insecurity as an issue with interrelated cross-sector determinants and various adverse social and health outcomes, data could be linked with a range of government strategies covering areas beyond health, including social services, education and criminal justice.

Addressing food security also aligns with many existing government policies, including the:

• National Preventive Health Strategy.
• National Obesity Strategy 2022-2032.
• Australian Dietary Guidelines.
• National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.
• National Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
• Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

Time to act on measuring food security

With better evidence, more targeted and effective food security policy and programs can be implemented for all Australians. The urgency of addressing this data gap is clear. Better surveillance will be a vital step to ensuring the food security of Australians. We can’t wait another ten years to get a clear national picture, when all it takes is two minutes to measure household food security status.

Sue Kleve is Course Director for the Master of Nutrition and Dietetics and Senior Lecturer, Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food at Monash University.

Katherine Kent is Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Wollongong and a committee member for the National Committee for Nutrition, Australia.

Rebecca Lindberg is Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition and School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University.

The authors would also like to acknowledge the contributions to this article of Danielle Gallegos (Professor Faculty of Health, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Queensland University of Technology), Stephanie Godrich (Senior Lecturer in Nutrition, Edith Cowan University) and Miriam Williams (Senior Lecturer, Geography and Planning, Macquarie University).

All authors are members of the S.H.A.R.E Collaboration a group of researchers from universities across Australia seeking Solutions supporting Household Food Security in Australia through Research and Evidence.

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