Food security assessment carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) revealed that approximately 8.7 million people (39.1 percent) are not consuming an adequate diet.

According to the UN agencies, this represents a dramatic deterioration compared to the third quarter of 2021, when a survey conducted by the Medical Research Institute (MRI) estimated only 3.4 percent of the households had inadequate food consumption. 

In June 2022, meals predominantly consisted of rice, vegetables, oil and sugar, while consumption of fish, an important source of protein in the Sri Lankan diet, averaged just 0.8 days per week.