Capacity of the foods included in the Basic Tax Basket of Costa Rica to satisfy the nutritional requirements of the quintile with less incomes

Abstract

On a national level, several regulations have been developed with the aim of protecting the economically most vulnerable sectors of the population. One of these regulations is the Costa Rica’s Basic Tax Basket Regulations (CBT by the Spanish acronym for Canasta Básica Tributaria), which establishes a decrease in the tax burden on food consumed by the most vulnerable population of the 2013 National Household Income and Expense Survey (ENIGH by the Spanish acronym for Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares). The objective of this research is to compare the nutritional value of the foods included in the CBT and the nutritional requirements of the first quintile members of the 2013 ENIGH. The research is quantitative and co-relational in type. The sample is the first income quantile of the ENIGH of 2013 and is composed of healthy adults with ages between 19 and 60. The analysis was made during the first four months of 2020, using an instrument formulated in Excel, in which meal plans are formulated only with the foods that are part of the CBT, to calculate the content of energy, macronutrients, saturated fatty acids, fiber, calcium, zinc, magnesium, vitamin E and vitamin D. The results determined that 46% of CBT foods are classified as source or good source of some of the studied nutrients. As well as 6 of the 11 studied nutrients are satisfactorily adapted to the requirements of the population. The results allow to conclude that with the foods included in the CBT, an adequately balanced meal plan can be formulated, because excess or deficiency of nutrients found in the meal plan are not considered harmful to the health.