BACKGROUND:
Only 15% of the adult Chilean population consumes at least 400 grams/day of fruits and vegetables (F&V)(1). No evidence exists describing economic access and gaps for F&V intake for policy design in Chile and Latin America.

OBJECTIVE:
To describe the economic cost of meeting F&V consumption recommendations in the Chilean population.

METHODS:
cross-sectional study using secondary data from 15134 households from the IX Chilean Household Budget Survey (2021–2022), representative of urban households nationwide(2). Fruit and vegetable (F&V) apparent consumption was estimated from all fresh and frozen F&V purchases, adjusted for non-edible parts and age-specific intake recommendations(3,4). A F&V basket (400 grams per adult equivalent) was built based on a published sustainable food basket(5), with prices estimated on a monthly basis (expressed as 2022 USD). The economic gap was defined as the difference between household F&V expenditure and basket cost. Analyses were performed nationwide and by socioeconomic level (quintiles for per capita income)(6).

RESULTS:
Daily apparent consumption was 235 grams (95% CI: 230; 241) per adult equivalent, ranging from 188 grams (95% CI: 179; 198) in Q1 to 261 grams (95% CI: 233; 239) in Q4 (p<0.001). The F&V basket cost was USD .8 per adult equivalent, which was equivalent to <5% of the available income in Q4 and Q5, but 18.3% of the income in Q1. The monthly economic gap to meet the recommended intake per adult equivalent ranged from 0.3% of the available income in Q5 (USD .4; 95% CI: .4, .4) to 7.7% in Q1 (USD .6; 95% CI: .0, .2).

CONCLUSIONS:
Interventions that consider subsidies on F&V can increase intake among the 40% most vulnerable households in Chile (Q1 and Q2), reducing the socioeconomic gap. However, other factors unrelated to economic barriers may explain the low compliance among the Chilean population, especially in the highest quintiles.