Tools for overcoming the consequences of food inflation

The article analyzes the dynamics of food inflation in modern conditions, considers the features of its calculation by official statistics and alternative sources of information. The ratio of actual consumption of basic foodstuffs and rational consumption rates in population groups with different income levels is shown. It is noted that the problem of lagging behind the consumption level in the group with the lowest incomes from the minimum physiological norms, as well as from the standard level of caloric content of the diet, remains. A conclusion is made about the importance of gradual state regulation of this area, ensuring the economic availability of basic foodstuffs for all income groups of the population. The strategy for transforming the institutional mechanism for the economic availability of food is substantiated. Supplements to the Doctrine of Food Security of the Russian Federation are proposed, reflecting modern challenges related to food security risks, in particular, increasing income differentiation, which affects the dynamics of domestic mass demand. The need to form a state system of food aid is substantiated taking into account the generalization of the results of a sociological survey of rural residents, carried out in a regional region. A conclusion was made about the demand for the food aid institute in rural areas by the most socially vulnerable groups of the population: large and single-parent families, pensioners, the unemployed. The fact that the majority of respondents in difficult life situations are aware of the advisability of short-term use of this social protection tool as an operational measure of today was noted. They consider an increase in the minimum wage and pensions as part of the activation of social policy as the most important mechanism for food security and growth of the population's well-being. It was proposed to expand the use of the social contract institute to improve the parameters of food consumption of the most vulnerable groups of the population.