Calculating Cost of a Healthy Diet:

Instructions for using the Excel Workbook template

PURPOSE :

These instructions explain how to use food price data to calculate Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD)
using an Excel Workbook template devised by the Food Prices for Nutrition project at Tufts
University. The purpose of this protocol is to guide transformation of food price data, measured in
local currency per unit of each item observed at various places and times, into the total cost per
day of the least-cost items available at each place and time that would be needed for a healthy
diet. We use the quantity of the lowest-priced items to measure physical and economics access
at that place and time to sufficient foods for active and healthy life.

REQUIRED INPUTS :

To calculate the Cost of a Healthy Diet, you will make changes and add data to the following
Excel Workbook sheets:

1 3
Food Item Information Food Price Data

2 4
Dietary Guideline Criteria Calculation & Results

** no manual inputs

These sheets can be completed in any order – you can begin by completing the Food Price
Data sheet, the Quantities Recommended sheet, or the Food Item Information sheet.

last revised 24 Feb 2023

REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

1 SHEET: Food Item Information

List of Food Items

To begin, you will need a List of Food

Items, and the units in which they are
sold, that appear across your food
price data.

Each row in the Food Item Information

sheet is a food item sold in a particular
unit size (e.g., a 2-kilogram bag).

Use your List of Food Items with prices to populate

columns A-C in the Food Item Information sheet.
 REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

1 SHEET: Food Item Information

If you have data across several time periods and/or locations, your food price data will include
more than one observation for each food item. You can extract a unique List of Food Items
that appear across your Food Price Data by copying and pasting the Food Price Data into a
new sheet and using the Data > Remove Duplicates options in Excel.
Market 1

List of Food Items

Market 2
Market 3

Use this information to

populate columns A-C in the
Food Item Information sheet.
 REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

1 SHEET: Food Item Information

Item Weight: The standard unit of measure for food price data is kilograms. However, some
foods are sold in non-standard units, including:

● packet of cereal
● liter of milk
● single or dozen egg
● loaf of bread
● bag of flour
● tin of fish

In order to calculate the Cost of a Healthy Diet, you must enter the Item Weight in kilograms —
which converts all units of sale into kilograms. This enables you to calculate the price / Kg for
each food in the CoHD Calculation sheet, as well as the price / kCal.

Item Name Unit Sold Item Weight (kg)

Beans Kilograms 1

Rice, long Kilograms 1

Rice, medium Kilograms 1

Cornflakes Packet 0.4

Maize on the cob, fresh Kilograms 1

Spaghetti Packet 0.2

Semolina Bag 2

Maize flour (2 kg) Bag 2

Bread, wheat Loaf 0.4

 REQUIRED INPUTS: OVERVIEW :

1 SHEET: Food Item Information

Completing the Food Item Information sheet is a one-time process to establish key information for your
food item list (i.e., item weight, food composition data, food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs)
information). To facilitate the matching to food composition data, and assigning a Common Food Name
and Food Group, you can use the Food Information Database – which contains food information for
300+ common items. You can also add data directly from other food composition tables.

Food Item Weight Food Group

Common Food Name

Food Item eggplant

Item Name eggplant Food Group vegetable

Unit Sold bundle

Food Composition
Item Weight (kg) 2 kilograms Table (FCT) Data

Maize flour
Maize, fresh, raw FCT West African FCT 2019
Maize
Porridge, maize FCT Code 04_012
FCT Food Name eggplant, fruit, raw
Energy Density (kcal/100g
Giving Common Food Names to food items 31 kcal / 100 grams
of edible portion of food)
ensures that unique foods from each food
Edible Portion 0.81
group are selected (where several items are
recommended for daily consumption). The
Common Food Name is also used to drop
duplicate foods (within each food group) and
keep only the least-cost food item (in each
market, at each time).
REQUIRED INPUTS: OVERVIEW :

1 SHEET: Food Item Information

The Food Item Information sheet is also where you exclude certain foods from the Cost of a Healthy
Diet Calculation. Some exclusions – for sweets or other discretionary foods – may depend on the
national FBDG (or global dietary criteria) you are using, but certain foods are always excluded.

Food Group

EXCLUSIONS:

Marked as “Exclude” in the Food Group column.

Regardless of the dietary criteria you are using,

certain items should always be excluded from
calculation, including:

- Condiments
- Spices & Seasonings
- Infant Formula
- Coffee / Tea
- Water
using the
FOOD
INFORMATION
DATABASE
This database provides food item information for 300+ food items that are common across different
National Statistics Organization datasets. To use this database, please select the relevant
spreadsheet for the FBDG (or global criteria) you plan use for your CoHD calculation.

Copy and paste the relevant rows into the Food

Item Information sheet. This will include:

● Common Food Name

● Food Composition data
● Food Groups
REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

3 SHEET: Dietary Guideline Criteria

Dietary Guideline Criteria. This information comes from national food-based dietary guidelines
(FBDGs) or global criteria (such as the Healthy Diet Basket), and is used to determine food group
classification (i.e., fruits, vegetables).

In each criteria, the recommended quantities to consume per day (for each food group) are
specified in calorie (kCal) terms. In many food groups, several foods are recommended to
ensure dietary diversity. The specifics vary across different guidelines. The Food Prices for
Nutrition team has quantified several national FBDGs, and that information can be found in the
FBDG Recommendations sheet.

Number of Foods Calories Needed

FBDG Name Food Group
Recommended (kcal/day)

Starchy staples 2 1160

Vegetables 3 110

Healthy Diet Fruits 2 160

Basket Animal source foods 2 300

Legumes, nuts and seeds 1 300

Oils and fats 1 300

Food groups in the Food Item Information Quantities

sheet should reflect the food groups in Recommended
the dietary guideline you select. (per person per day)

/!\ The spelling and capitalization

must be the same in both sheets for the
formulas in the CoHD Calculation sheet
to work correctly.
 REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

2 SHEET: Dietary Guideline Criteria

Selected FBDG All FBDGs

Copy and paste the relevant rows into

the Quantities Recommended sheet.
This will include:

● Food Groups
● Number of Foods Needed
● Calories Needed (kCal/day)
2

Select the national FBDG (or global criteria) you

will use for your analysis. Find the corresponding
information in the FBDG Recommendations sheet
which contains the Healthy Diet Basket and
several national FBDGs.
1
REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

3 SHEET: Food Price Data

Food Price Data is typically collected by national statistical organizations for ~50-150
commonly consumed food items in order to monitor inflation using the Consumer Price Index
(CPI). However, other sources of data (from Ministries, Universities or NGOs) may be available.

Each observation (row of data) in a food

Food Item eggplant
price dataset should include the:
Unit Sold kilograms
- Food Item
- Unit Sold (i.e. kilogram) Price per Unit 800 Tsh
- Price per Unit (in local currency) Location (Market) Zanzibar, Tanzania
- Location
- Date of data collection Date January 2023
 REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

3 SHEET: Food Price Data

For compatibility with the Excel Workbook, your Food Price Data should be organized to match
the Food Price Data sheet, following the column order seen below. Each row should represent a
single price observation for a food item — at each time and place where data was collected. You
may add additional columns (i.e. urban / rural) if useful for your analysis.

Item Name Price per Unit

(name of generic food or (cost of food item per
specific product) unit as purchased)
Example Food Price Data

Local
Date Market Name and Location Item Code Unit Sold
Currency
(month, (market, city, district, urban / (distinct code for each (unit of measure, as
Unit (i.e.
year or rural or other administrative food and unit pair, sold or purchased)
dollar, naira)
other) level information) consistent across
locations and dates)
REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

4 SHEET: Calculation and Results

** no manual inputs

The CoHD Calculation sheet pulls information from all

other sheets to execute the Cost of a Healthy Diet
calculation. If the formulas are not functioning properly,
you may need to check that the following:

1
The number of rows matches
the Food Price Data sheet. If
they do not, you can manually
drag down the tables (using
the edge in the bottom left)
until the formulas reach the
correct row.

2
Make sure that the formulas in Column W and Column Y reference the last row in the table.
In the example below, 461 is the last row:

=IF(AND(V2<>"", T2<>""), =IF(X2<>"",

SUMPRODUCT((V2='CoHD SUMPRODUCT((X2='CoHD
Calculation'!$V$1:$V$461)*('CoHD Calculation'!$X$1:$X$461)*('CoHD
Calculation'!$T2>$T$1:$T$461))+1, "") Calculation'!$T2>$T$1:$T$461))+1, "")

3
Several formulas in this sheet use the CONCAT function. CONCAT is available in Excel 2019 or
later. If using an earlier version of Excel, be sure to change all CONCAT to CONCATENATE.
REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

4 SHEET: Calculation and Results

** no manual inputs

The CoHD Results reports the final Cost of a Healthy Diet indicator – for each
location and each time period in your food price data. Once you have filled out all
the necessary inputs, be sure to click Refresh All (Data > Refresh All) on this page.

Least-cost basket
of foods in each
time and place.

Cost of a
Healthy Diet
REQUIRED INPUTS: DETAILED INFO :

4 SHEET: Calculation and Results

Food Item Unit Sold Item Weight (kg) Price per Unit
Carrots Bag 1 KG 2.13 LCU

1 Bag 2.13 LCU / 2.13 LCU /

Carrots unit kg

1 KG /
unit

2.13 LCU / 2.13 LCU /

kg kg
0.0051 LCU /
kCal
Food Composition Data 41 kCal / x 10 410 kCal /
100g kg

0.0051 LCU / 36.7 kCal req. /

kCal X item / 0.19 LCU
food group
DAILY COST .

Dietary Guideline Criteria

Adding items not
included in the
FOOD
INFORMATION
DATABASE
 ADDING NEW ITEMS: TIPS & SOURCE

Food Composition Data

Energy Density
kcal/100g of edible
portion of food
(convert to kcal if kJ)

Food
Composition
Table (FCT)
(to keep track of
dataset(s) used)

FCT Code FCT Item Name Edible Portion

(taken from the (identify best match to the (expressed as portion of
FCT(s) used) food items in your data) the whole food, or the
inverse – refuse amount)

Food Composition Tables (FCTs) are national or regional datasets that include food item names,
food item codes, edible portions, and energy density information. Below are a few examples:
ADDING NEW ITEMS: TIPS & SOURCE

Common Food Names

In food price datasets, there may be similar foods with different names. To calculate the Cost of
a Healthy Diet, the tool needs to compare multiple types of the same food (i.e. imported rice,
local rice, long-grain rice) and rank them according to their relative cost. To unlock this process,
you need to manually assign Common Food Names to each distinct food in your dataset.

You can choose these common food names, as long as they are easily understandable and
consistent throughout the list of foods. Below are a few examples:

brinjal rice, white, long-grain milk, fluid

`aubergine eggplant rice, white, medium rice `milk, dry milk

eggplant rice, brown tinned milk

chicken, meat & skin, raw shelled groundnuts

chicken, wing, raw chicken groundnut, paste groundnut

ground chicken, packaged groundnuts, roasted

ADDING NEW ITEMS: TIPS & SOURCE

FBDGs (Food-Based Dietary Guidelines)

To calculate the Cost of a Healthy Diet, select a criteria for dietary guidance — which can be national
or global. This will determine how you classify your food items into food groups as well as the daily
recommended calories and number of foods for each food group. This information enables the tool
to determine least-cost diets in each location and time that are also nutrient-adequate.

National FBDGs represent a realistic way for

people to consume healthy diets in their
country, and can be used where they are
available (and quantified).

Global criteria — such as the Healthy Diet

Basket — represent commonalities across
different FBDGs, and can be used when
national dietary guidance is not available
(or not quantified).