_Choosing the minimum daily caloric requirement for the food poverty line._ There is no recent estimate of daily caloric requirement for the Brazilian population. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated minimum dietary energy requirements for the Brazilian population in 2000-2002 and 2006-2008 at 1,840 and 1,860 kcal per person per day, respectively (FAO, 2011). Average dietary energy requirements were estimated at 2,340 (2000-2002) and 2,360 kcal per person per day (2006-2008) (FAO, 2011). In the absence of estimates of the energy requirements of a population of interest, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends using a mean daily per capita intake of 2,100 kcal for a developing country profile (Table 1). This is the threshold we will be using to estimate the food poverty line for Brazil.

**Table 1. Potential minimum individual calorie requirements for Brazil**

|_Minimum individual_<br>_calorie requirement_<br>_(kcal/day)_|_Source_|
|---|---|
|1,840|FAO minimum dietary energy requirement (MDER) for Brazil 2000-2002|
|1,860|FAO MDER for Brazil 2006-2008|
||WHO (2000) recommends this mean daily per capita intake (for a|
|2,100|developing country profile) if energy and protein requirements of the<br>population are unknown.|
|2,300|World Bank (2007)|
|2,340|FAO average dietary energy requirement (ADER) for Brazil 2000-2002|
|2,360|FAO ADER for Brazil 2006-2008|

_Source:_ Own compilation.

_Estimating the cost per calorie._ To estimate the cost per calorie, we use information on food purchases (expenditures and quantity consumed) by food item from POF. POF collects information on food purchases for consumption at home as well as food consumed away from home (FAFH). Food purchases for consumption at home are collected in the household expenditure diary, which collects expenditures on frequent purchases over a reference period of one week (POF 3). It collects expenditures and quantities purchased by food item, containing 4,549 different food items. Although accounting for FAFH in the calculation of the cost per calorie is advisable, we cannot include it since it is not possible to assign calorie intake values to FAFH as observed in the data. FAFH is collected in a different questionnaire (POF 4) that collects expenditures by food item but does not have the associated quantities consumed.<sup>8</sup> 8 We assessed the possibility of addressing this shortcoming by using data from another questionnaire (POF 7) that registers quantities of items consumed, location, time, and its calorie intake. However, it was not possible to match the data from POF 7 (quantities) and POF 4 (expenditures) in a reliable way. First, item specifications differ across the two questionnaires. Food items in POF 4 are mostly vague. The item with highest expenditure is "takeaway meal (lunch/dinner).” In contrast, POF 7 has items as detailed as white rice, beans, eggs, potatoes, and so on consumed during lunch or dinnertime. Second, reference periods and data collection methods are different. POF 4 expenditures are collected via recall and have a reference period of one week. POF7 is a diary and collects information on all food items consumed within two nonconsecutive days in that reference week. Finally, POF 7 is captured only for a random subset of the sample and only for household members ages 10 years and above.

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