When the revised and enlarged 5th edition of the food composition table is compared with the fourth one, a decrease in the nutrition of vegetables due to seasonality and other factors can be observed. In order to measure the ways in which the fall in nutritive value might have influenced household food expenditure, I estimated the minimum value of food expenditure according to both the 4th and the 5th edition of the food composition tables by using linear programming. It was used to calculate the minimum cost of diet based on conditions which required the adequate intake of nutrition, sodium and PFC energy balance. The menu with the minimum cost consisted of wheat flour, eggs, cabbages and bean sprouts etc., and the main ingredients were starchy foods and eggs. While the minimum cost of diet in 2008 was 325.7 yen per day using the 4th edition of the food composition table, it was 372.7 yen per day with the 5th edition, an increase of 47.0 yen or 14.4 percent. Thus it was clear that the fall in various foods' nutritive value caused the household food expenditure increase. It means that people have to pay more if they wish to maintain the same nutritious level of diet as before.
