25% of income needed to buy basket of healthy food

Low-income households need to spend at least one quarter of their income to afford to buy a basket of healthy food.

According to research by Safefood, the weekly cost of a healthy food basket ranged from €66 for a single pensioner to €165 for a family of two adults and two children — with households in rural areas facing bigger food costs compared with urban households.

The research, which was led by consumers themselves, gives an actual cost on a healthy food basket for six types of Irish households in both urban and rural locations.