Why is junk food so much cheaper than healthy food?

December 22, 2025 •

4 min read

According to a study cited by the BBC, 1,000 calories of healthy food can cost more than double the price of 1,000 calories from less healthy options. This significant price gap is a critical barrier for many people trying to eat better and raises the question: why is junk food so much cheaper than healthy food?

Quick Summary

Government subsidies, mass production, and longer shelf life make processed foods cheaper, while fresh produce has higher labor, transportation, and spoilage costs. These factors create a food system that favors inexpensive, unhealthy options, influencing consumer choices and impacting public health.

Key Points

Subsidies for Commodity Crops: Government policies heavily subsidize commodity crops like corn, soy, and wheat, which form the base ingredients for most junk food, driving down their production costs.
Economies of Scale: Large-scale, automated manufacturing processes for processed foods significantly reduce the cost per unit, making them cheaper to produce than fresh, unprocessed items.
Longer Shelf Life: Additives and preservatives give junk food a long shelf life, minimizing waste for manufacturers and retailers and thus lowering prices compared to perishable fresh produce.
Marketing and Consumer Demand: Aggressive marketing for junk food creates high consumer demand and brand loyalty, enabling high-volume production and low prices, further increasing its accessibility.
Higher Production and Transport Costs: Growing, harvesting, and transporting fresh fruits and vegetables is more labor-intensive and logistically complex, with higher costs for spoilage and refrigeration.
Socioeconomic Disparity: The price gap exacerbates health inequalities, as low-income households are more likely to rely on cheaper, calorie-dense foods, increasing their risk of diet-related diseases.

The affordability of junk food versus healthy options is not an accident but the result of a deeply entrenched and complex food system. Several economic and policy-driven factors contribute to this disparity, making processed, nutrient-poor foods widely available and inexpensive, while fresh, nutrient-dense foods remain more costly.

The Role of Government Subsidies

One of the most significant drivers of the price difference is government policy, particularly agricultural subsidies. In many countries, the government provides financial support to farmers who grow commodity crops like corn, soy, and wheat. These crops are the primary ingredients for most processed and junk foods. On the other hand, subsidies for fresh fruits and vegetables are minimal in comparison.

Commodity Production: Subsidies encourage farmers to produce these crops in massive quantities, creating a surplus that drives prices down. This makes ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup (from corn), processed vegetable oils (from soy), and refined flour (from wheat) incredibly cheap for manufacturers.
Feedstock for Processed Foods: With these low-cost base ingredients readily available, food manufacturers can produce a wide array of inexpensive processed snacks, cereals, and ready meals. The indirect subsidy on these ingredients keeps the final price of the junk food product low.
Impact on Fresh Produce: Since fresh produce typically does not receive the same level of subsidy, its production costs are not artificially lowered. The price reflects the true cost of labor, land, and transportation, making it comparatively more expensive.

Economies of Scale in Manufacturing

Mass production is a core pillar of the junk food industry's cost-effectiveness. Large-scale, automated factories can produce millions of units of a single product with minimal human labor, driving the per-unit cost down dramatically.

Automated Production: Factories producing packaged snacks or sugary drinks are highly mechanized. The machinery required for the first batch of cookies or chips is expensive, but the cost is spread out over millions of units, making subsequent units very cheap to produce.
Shelf Stability: Processed foods are designed for a long shelf life, reducing waste and associated costs. Ingredients like sugar, salt, and preservatives are cheap and act as natural preservatives, allowing products to sit in warehouses and on store shelves for months or even years.
Marketing and Distribution: The long shelf life and stable nature of junk food also simplifies its distribution and marketing. Manufacturers can ship large quantities over long distances and promote them through large-scale advertising campaigns, further benefiting from economies of scale.

Shorter Shelf Life and Supply Chain Costs for Healthy Food

In contrast, fresh produce faces significant cost pressures due to its perishable nature and complex supply chain.

Labor-Intensive Production: Growing, harvesting, and packaging fresh fruits and vegetables often require more manual labor than highly automated commodity crop farming. This human labor is a significant and costly input.
Higher Transport Costs: Fresh produce often needs to be transported quickly and under refrigerated conditions to prevent spoilage. This 'cold chain' adds significant logistical costs that are not a concern for shelf-stable processed goods.
Increased Spoilage and Waste: A portion of fresh produce will inevitably spoil before it can be sold. The cost of this wastage is factored into the retail price of the remaining products, raising the cost for the consumer.

The Impact of Marketing

Food marketing heavily influences consumer perceptions and purchase decisions. The junk food industry invests massive amounts in advertising, particularly targeting children and low-income populations.

Brand Loyalty: By creating highly palatable products that trigger a hedonic response, companies foster repeat purchasing and brand loyalty, increasing demand and justifying higher production volumes.
Offer Concentration: Marketing focuses on appealing features like taste, convenience, and low price, rather than nutritional value. Multi-buy offers are disproportionately concentrated on less healthy products, encouraging higher consumption.

Junk Food vs. Healthy Food: A Cost Comparison


Feature	Processed/Junk Food	Healthy/Whole Food
Key Ingredients	Heavily subsidized commodity crops (corn, soy, wheat)	Labor-intensive fresh produce, fruits, and lean proteins
Production	Highly automated and low-cost due to economies of scale	More manual labor, intensive handling, and risk of spoilage
Shelf Life	Long-lasting due to preservatives; reduces waste	Short shelf life; requires careful handling; high spoilage risk
Transportation	Stable goods, bulk shipping, lower transport costs	Requires refrigerated 'cold chain', faster delivery, higher transport costs
Marketing Focus	Taste, convenience, low price, multibuy promotions	Health benefits, freshness, quality; often premium marketing
Pricing	Low per-unit cost, often seems cheaper per calorie	Higher per-unit cost, often seems more expensive per portion

The Societal Consequences of Cost Disparity

The economic imbalance in food pricing has profound societal consequences, disproportionately affecting low-income communities. When faced with budget constraints, families are more likely to prioritize low-cost, calorie-dense foods over more expensive, nutrient-dense alternatives. This contributes to a higher prevalence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other diet-related illnesses, creating a public health crisis. The cycle is self-reinforcing: these health issues place a greater burden on the healthcare system and reduce life expectancy, especially for the most vulnerable populations. The affordability of junk food is a systemic issue, not a personal failure of willpower.

Conclusion

The question of why is junk food so much cheaper than healthy food boils down to a confluence of policy, production, and market forces. From government subsidies favoring commodity crops to the economies of scale achieved through mass production and aggressive marketing, the deck is stacked in favor of inexpensive, processed food. Fresh, healthy food, with its higher labor and logistics costs, simply cannot compete on price alone. Addressing this imbalance would require significant policy shifts to reorient subsidies towards healthier agriculture, potentially using tools like taxes on unhealthy foods or subsidies for nutrient-dense ones. Until then, the price of food will continue to shape public health outcomes in powerful and inequitable ways.

Assessing the Cost of Healthy and Unhealthy Diets

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, many of the core ingredients like corn, soy, and wheat are inexpensive due to large-scale, efficient farming and significant government subsidies, making them cheap for manufacturers to use.

The highly automated and large-scale nature of junk food production leads to massive economies of scale, spreading fixed costs over millions of units and drastically reducing the cost per item.

Fresh produce is highly perishable and requires a refrigerated supply chain (cold chain) and faster delivery times to prevent spoilage. This adds significant logistical and transportation costs.

Yes, government agricultural policies often heavily subsidize commodity crops used in processed foods while providing less support for fruits and vegetables, skewing the economic incentives towards unhealthy foods.

Not necessarily. While convenient healthy options can be more expensive, simple, whole foods like lentils, beans, and oats can be very affordable. The perception of healthy food as uniformly expensive is a common myth.

Extensive and targeted marketing campaigns for junk food leverage low prices and convenience to drive demand, particularly among low-income households, reinforcing unhealthy eating habits.

A shorter shelf life means more of the product will spoil before it's sold. This food waste is a cost that retailers must account for, and it is passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

You can eat healthy on a budget by planning meals, cooking at home, buying affordable whole foods like beans and rice in bulk, and choosing frozen or seasonal produce to minimize costs.