They asked each family to go shopping a buy a normal week’s worth of food. The last photo gives some food for thought…
Peter Menzel and his wife, a writer, Faith D’Aluision decided to see how average families from all over the world feed themselves and how much they spend per week. They prepared a travel album called “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats”.
The adventure began in 2006. Since then, they illustrated the eating habits of 30 families in 24 different countries. They asked each of them to go shopping and buy a typical week’s worth of food. The purchases were paid for by the authors. Then the couple took a family picture in the background of the products.
In these photos you can see not only cultural but also economic differences between countries. The couple watched people teetering between poverty, expensive food, and fast-food. The album undoubtedly allows us to start to see food in a whole new light.
1. The Melander family of Bargteheide (Germany)
Food for a 4-person family, cost: $ 500.07
2. The Kutten-Kass family from Erpeldange (Luxembourg)
Products for a family of 4, cost: $ 465.84
3. The Le Moine family from Paris (France)
Food for 4 people, cost: $ 419.95
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The amount of plastic waste reflects the cost of the week’s food.
My family (of 4) spends about $300 for 2 weeks on food in Australia, no one really needs that much food.
Did you notice the Australian family’s groceries also included 2 cartons of cigarettes? How is that food??
My interpretation of these photos is that what counts as “necessities” around the world/for different families varies greatly and that there also is a great amount of waste in general. The family from Germany also had a bunch of alcohol which wouldn’t really be considered “food” in the nutrition sense just like cartons of cigarettes but for some, it’s considered a necessity.
actually, alcohol is one of the four forms of calories we can digest
God fun police here again, at least they are honest, if it were me I would have hidden the cigarettes.
depends if you are buying organic produce, free range organic meats etc – ours is certainly more than 300 for 4 people. its not about quantity, its quality in our house.
Butane? Do you mean Bhutan?
These photos are from a long time ago. The Australian family bought cigarettes which now come in plain packaging and warning labels. Shopping costs a lot more these days if you buy fresh, processed food is definitely cheaper.
the beginning of the article states that they started in 2006- but surely the point is not the cigarettes but the huge discrepancies between each family and nationality? the last three pictures all show fresh foods and there’s no plastic, mass-produced packaging at all- they’re the cheapest. I think that is what the article is aiming to show 🙂
The last photo would cost around $40 here in NZ.
2nd/3rd to last photo around $50.
4th to last round $80.
Fresh food is so damn expensive here 🙁
If you’re willing to check out online supermarket catalogues and making frugal choices and planning a multiple supermarket run during the morning/late evening once a week you can save a lot of money. Fruit/veg, frozen products, cereals and other staples can be close to half price depending where you go. 79c/kg for carrots isn’t that expensive.
I have four children. For our family of 6 we spend 150 – 180 per week. Every now and again, when I have to get some staples I have run out of, we spend closer to $200.00. We don’t get government assistance, we eat well. We don’t have a lot of snack foods if any around the house. We snack on apples and bananas and peanut butter and jelly. We cook at home. I don’t get as much fresh produce as I would like but I buy what’s in season. I would love to spend more but that’ s all our budget will allow. We have been living this way for quite some time. It’s tough but doable. I live in Pennsylvania.
Yeah, if someone is spending 400+ dollars a week on groceries in the US for a family of four, they are shopping all wrong! My mom’s grocery budget for a family of 4 was 150.00 a week. And that was including all the good stuff like chips and cookies. I can’t imagine anyone spending 400.00 a week on groceries…they better be eating steak and lobster every night!
What the u.s. family spends is more than my monthly budget for a family of 4. I can only spend $75 – $100 per week depending on our gas needs. I have a lot of doctors appointments far away.
everyone is upset about the cigarettes but no one notices how much alcohol was in the pictures? no comments on the amount of fast food, soda, chips and other garbage? no comments on the difference between the countries where it was all fresh vs. all processed?
I recently upped our budget to $125 (Utah, USA) for a family of 5 + dog, but when grocery items that can be stored or frozen go on a good sale, I always buy extra for a rainy day. Growing up and in my current family, having experienced several layoffs, having that food storage was a blessing, as was the family garden.
I ask from one family to the other the cost is so much but at what is the cost to the Pound as for one you might get 6 eggs an for the other you might get 36 eggs what is the cost country to country to the pound or dollar
What am getting at is it shows all in there currency so what do you get for a £ $ in one country you might get more or less so the numbers don’t mean any think but I do see booz an cigs on some an not on others
Was this article sponsored by Kelloggs?
When I look in my pantry it makes me feel quite ashamed at how much plastic and packaging is in there. There is such a huge difference between the cultures and distribution of wealth! Or is it just that the food costs more because it is covering the cost of packaging and manufacturing? Either way I feel sad after seeing these images and I think I should be a bit more grateful for what my family can afford.
people do you see how much pop is in some of the picture’s & juice all that sugar
I am amazed they are able to buy that much per week….we can’t even do that once a month
I noticed that the Australian family had lots of cereal but no milk! So many families in western countries buying bottled water when tap water is as good or better. The last pic with such a small amount of food also had SIX people in the picture but the text said food for FIVE. Who didn’t get fed that week?
You might want to look again. 6 litres of milk that I can see in that photo.
I doubt this is accurate even for 2006 the cigarettes alone would have been nearly half the Australian Families $376 and there is at least $100 worth of meat on that table so that would leave about $88 for the rest of the stuff there which is impossible.
Does this take into account exchange rates?
The American family definitely had the most food, junk food and packaging! The families from Ecuador, Bhutan, Mexico, had the least packaging and the most veg. The Sudanese family very sadly reflected their impoverishment. Also what was noticeable from the Western families, they all had bottled water!!! WHY?? What is wrong with their tap water?
Everybody’s going on about cigarettes and alcohol and coca cola and shit… HASN’T ANYBODY NOTICED THAT THE POLISH FAMILY FEED THEIR DOG WITH CAT FOOD!?
I think the type of food families buy and cook matters more than the cost. To get the true cost equivalent you would need to buy each family’s shopping in the same store in the same country. Some of the healthier diets would come out pretty expensive if purchased here in the USA.
No not at all, look at a comparison of prices to Austria for example, it’s generally more expensive in Austria, yet they eat much healthier and eat less junk food. You don’t even need to look at price comparisons, if you travel the world, most places have such a different approach to food compared to the USA, the main one being that they make food themselves.
Healthy diets are not expensive in the slightest, compare the cost of a large pizza to the ingredients needed to make a healthy pizza for example. It has nothing to do with it being expensive, it’s because most countries have a culture of buying ingredients and making the food themselves.
Americans are just lazy with food, they buy premade food and say eating healthy is to expensive when the reality is it’s cheaper but they are to lazy to make healthy foods and refuse the pay extra for ‘pre-made’ healthy food.
This feels kinda strange to me. I’m from Germany and been recently to Vancouver and Seattle for a couple of weeks and most of the basic food there was 2 or 3 times more expensive than back home. To be fair Vancouver is very expensive at all but I don’t know if Seattle is compared to the rest of the US.
Additionally I noticed that the German family seemed to have bought really much alcohol. There are arround 30 beers and additionally 4 or 5 bootles of whine. Yeah sure you buy this every week…for 2 adults and have 2 – 3 beers each on an evening and at least every second evening you also kill a bottle of wine.
And for the US family: they seem to spend a lot on just fast food and if the cook, they only seem to eat meat. I can’t really see that much else there. Well of course I don’t know that many products, but compared to several other families there are no potatos, no ‘greens’, no nudels, no rice…just meat and several sauces. And again: meat was so expensive in Vancouver and Seattle and we had to buy the chepast packages we could find. In Germany we could have bought the same of a real good quality and not just the packed stuff from the cheapest supermarket.
Talking about supermarkets: maybe some of the families that paid more, tend only to go to the more expensive shops because they look for quality food etc. and others just can’t afford the cheapest stuff.
What you also have to take into account: In several countries kids can eat at school, in Germany this is not very common. So maybe in country A the family needs to cook at least one hot meal a day ehere in country B they only cook on weekends because kis are eating in school, parents at a cantina at their office…
Long story short:
Of course there are many differences in what people eat, where they buy their stuff, how much they can spend. But I really don’t think this series gives a real good impreission what it’s really like. The should have taken at least 5 families of each country. People living in an urban area, people in a more rural area, people that can afford much and people that can’t afford that much, or just people that do care more about quality food (and can afford it) and people that don’t.
as to the kids eating at school or home for lunch – you have to consider that americans don’t eat their big meal at lunch but at night. germans eat their large meal at lunch time and something lighter at night. germans also have something in the morning and then a pause at 9 or so and then lunch and so on. basically, from an american point of view, 4 meal times. as an american living in germany, it is very different. germans eat much more bread, more carbonated drinks, and much more alcohol than “the normal” american.
i don’t think the american family was a good representative for all of the u.s. though. yes, some families eat out nearly every night, but many don’t. you would need a couple families to show the norms for america. our family has homemade dinner every night. eating out is the exception rather than the norm.
Is no one concerned about the fact that there are 6 ppl in the last picture and only 5 of them eat?
Alcohol and cigarettes are not food, therefore there cost should be deducted from the final amount. Protein, vegetables, fruits, dairy and carbs are food. Everything else should be removed.
In Bavaria (and possibly all of Germany) beer is legally a food. (Sure – they know it contains alcohol, they’re not daft, but the calories and vitamins qualify it as food.)
Cigarettes are food if you eat them lol, a lot of people commenting are missing the point, this is obviously about what family’s in different parts of the world can afford to eat (including luxury items) not what the exchange rate is.
The family from Mexico had 12 2L bottles of coke for a week that’s way to much & the German family had 30 bottles of beer & 4 bottles of wine for 2 people that’s a lot
in mexico, and many other places in the world, the water is not drinkable and drinking water is expensive or non-existent. it’s pretty common to just drink coke. doesn’t make it healthy, but speaks to the conditions of the area.
germany and some of the other areas, the alcohol is just part of the culture. they don’t do it out of unclean water conditions, just culture. beer or wine is the norm for dinner, beer at age 16, wine at 18. they consider it healthy. jagermeister is their fix all for what ails you. i was actually surprised they had so little for a german family. people are nearly offended here in germany when i tell them i don’t drink.
I really like your comment on Jaegermeister:-)
They forgot New Zealand.
And im curious – is the total cost in the currency as to each individual area or is it converted into one currency – and where is that currency from? Because the exchange rates if they are individual as per the country will change the actual amount if its all converted into one standard currency for the test. its informative but only in a roundabout kind of way, and is missing places. so it kinds takes away from the end result when its not very clear.
The problem I have with this is that it has simply all been transferred into US Dollars. But 5 US Dollars go a very long way in some countries. Has the exchange rate and the local price level been considered and factored in? I doubt it, so then the whole thing is skewed.
C’est du pipeau…on ne peut pas comparer des choux et des chèvres!
La France coûte beaucoup moins cher que le Canada et on mange beaucoup mieux en France
Very interesting look around the world. It would be good to know how many places have their food costs subsidized by the government like they do in Kuwait. When we lived in Kuwait it was very frustrating going to buy groceries and basically paying three times the price because we were expats and not worthy of the subsidy afforded to citizens.
So, you mean you were “immigrants” and did not have right to access welfare state benefits? Yea, it must be frustrating being an immigrant somewhere without right to access public funds, like it happens everywhere in Europe or in the develop world. but if you are Westerner in a Middle East country you never become an “immigrant” but always an “expat” , right? Expats are not “worthy” of the subsidy afforded to citizens, naturally, anywhere. But tax paying, service providing immigrants should have access to welfare state benefits and subsidies everywhere in the world.
Very interesting article. I must say though, that being German, I don’t know anyone who would spend $500 a week on groceries for their family. We’re the stingiest people in the world. It’s why we invented Aldi! 🙂