Methodical approaches to determining the level of food security of the state

Abstract

The article examines theoretical and methodological approaches to the definition of the concept of "food security", but it is noted that there is no official interpretation of this concept at the legislative level. A number of criteria for assessing the level of food security are substantiated, the use of which is provided in aggregate, while the level of food security can be assessed as satisfactory based on the overall positive result of the evaluation criteria. The level of self-sufficiency in the main types of food in Ukraine was studied. It was determined that despite the fairly high level of self-sufficiency of Ukraine at the current stage of development, when consumption approaches rationally recommended norms, the state may face problems of significantly increasing food production. The level of sufficiency of food consumption was analyzed. It was found that Ukraine is significantly behind in 2020 both from rationally recommended consumption norms and from the level of consumption of economically developed countries of the world. An indicator of insufficiency (inferiority) of nutrition is proposed, which should be called the deficit of food consumption and calculated as the difference between the actual and rational levels of food consumption both for the entire set of food products and for its individual components. It was studied that the lack of consumption of high-calorie products such as meat and meat products, milk and dairy products, fish and fish products was mainly replaced by lowcalorie products, vegetables, namely potatoes and melon food crops. It is proposed to divide countries into groups depending on the level of caloric content of food consumption. The level of availability of food consumption was analyzed. The low price availability for the population of highcalorie food products was determined, as well as a significant percentage of expenses in the structure of household incomes for food products, which indicates the poverty of the country compared to European countries.