Trends in population food and macronutrient availability in Aotearoa New Zealand from 1961 to 2022

Post World War II, there have been vast shifts in the global food supply which have influenced the burden of diet-related disease. The objective of this study was to use Food Balance Sheet data from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (1) to describe trends in the population supply of main food commodities from 1961 to 2022 in New Zealand (NZ) – a high-income country with a rapid decline in ischaemic heart disease (IHD) mortality since the late 1960s (2) and steadily increasing mean population body mass index, at least since the 1990s. Using Food Balance Sheet Data, which estimates population food supply, we calculated the percentage contribution of total fat from each of the main food commodity groups and also calculated mean population supply of food commodities in g/capita/day, as well as mean population supply of total energy in g/capita/day. For all analyses, we averaged data over 3-4 years. In 1961-63, the commodities ‘butter’ (37.0%) and ‘meat & poultry’ (35.6%) were the leading contributors to population supply of total fat. In 2019-22, ‘vegetable oils’ (23.3%) contributed most to total fat supply, whereas the contribution of butter had decreased to 15.8% and ‘meat & poultry’ to 21.6%. Per capita supply of ‘red meat’ decreased from 303g/day in 1961-63 to 162g/day in 2019-22, whilst per capita supply of poultry increased from 8g/day to 71g/day. In 1961-63, the per capita population supply of energy was 12,329 kJ/day; this had increased to 13,151 kJ/day in 2019-22. The considerable shifts in types of fat in the food supply from 1961 to 2022 have likely contributed significantly to marked decreases in rates of IHD over this time period in NZ. The supply of energy increased by 7% during the same time period, mirroring the increase in mean population body mass index over this time. This analysis underscores the profound importance of a country’s food supply to population health.