The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has highlighted that over 60% of Pakistan's population cannot afford a healthy diet, contributing to widespread malnutrition. The FAO report calls for an overhaul of Pakistan's agrifood system, including policy changes such as fiscal measures on unhealthy foods, nutrition labelling, and support for the production of nutritious food groups like vegetables, fruits, pulses, roots, tubers, and milk.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-04,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has highlighted that over 60% of Pakistan's population cannot afford a healthy diet, contributing significantly to high rates of malnutrition in the country. The FAO’s latest assessment on “Food Supply for Healthy Diets in Pakistan” reveals a critical need for an overhaul of the agrifood system to improve access to nutritious diets. To address this issue, the UN agency recommends several priority actions including updating Pakistan’s FBDGs (food-based dietary guidelines) to reflect nutrition and environmental priorities, introducing taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and other unhealthy foods, implementing front-of-pack nutrition labeling, protecting vulnerable populations from marketing of unhealthy foods, expanding nutritious school meal programs, and strengthening social protection programs. These measures aim to enhance consumer-focused policies and support behavior change towards healthier food choices, thereby reducing diet-related non-communicable diseases and improving overall public health in Pakistan.
Written for “Pakistan Food Supply Concerns” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
• UN agency says over 60pc of citizens unable to afford healthy diet
• Calls for overhaul of agrifood system
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60pc → say → system
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has emphasised the urgent need to transform Pakistan’s agrifood system to improve access to healthy diets, a critical step towards addressing all forms of malnutrition and their related costs to society.
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Organisation → emphasise → society
The UN agency, in its latest assessment on “Food Supply for Healthy Diets in Pakistan”, observed that a major challenge in the country’s current food supply is the persistent mismatch between the quantities of food available and those required for the population to consume a healthy diet aligned with the national food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs).
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population → observe → guidelines
“Enabling access to healthy diets for all is essential to achieving Pakistan’s national development priorities.
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Enabling → enable → priorities
Yet over 60 per cent of Pakistanis cannot afford a healthy diet, contributing to the high rates of malnutrition across the country.
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cent → afford → country
At the same time, diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCD) are rising, while various forms of undernutrition persist.
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forms → relate → undernutrition
Unhealthy diets are a common cause of all forms of malnutrition and contribute directly to morbidity and mortality from NCD,” the assessment shows.
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assessment → contribute → NCD
The FAO listed priority policy actions to strengthen demand for healthy diets through consumer-focused policies; updating Pakistan’s FBDGs to reflect nutrition, health, and environmental priorities and use it for nutrition education and behavior change; introducing evidence-based fiscal measures, including taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and other foods high in sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats; introducing front-of-pack nutrition labelling to help consumers make informed food choices; protecting vulnerable populations; restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods, particularly those targeting children, expanding nutritious school meal programmes; and strengthening social protection programmes to improve access to nutritious foods.
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consumers → list → foods
The assessment recommended reorienting the agrifood system to deliver healthy diets, aligning agricultural policies and investment priorities to increase support for the production of vegetables, fruits, pulses, roots and tubers across the country, while supporting milk production in some regions; and providing greater incentives for food processors to meet food safety and quality standards and reformulate foods to reduce salt, sugar and unhealthy fats.
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processors → recommend → salt
It called for promoting healthier retail food environments, through investments in storage, cold chains, and market infrastructure to reduce losses.
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It → call → losses
These actions, combined with regular monitoring, can contribute to increasing access to and consumption of healthy diets in Pakistan, both today and in the future.
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actions → combine → future
The FAO assessment says large gaps were observed for several nutritious food groups, particularly vegetables, roots and tubers, fruits, and legumes and pulses.
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gaps → say → groups
However, important misalignment exists between Pakistan’s dietary guidelines and food supply, with supply gaps for several nutritious food groups, particularly vegetables, roots and tubers, fruits, legumes and pulses, while the supply for staples and sugar exceeds what is needed for healthy diets.
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what → exist → diets
“Enabling equitable access to diverse, nutritious, safe, and affordable foods that support healthy diets is a policy imperative for Pakistan,” the assessment said.
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assessment → enable → Pakistan
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