Analyzing food security of the households: a case study in Malaysia using a logistic regression approach

Food security is a state where all households have access to sufficient, nutritious, and safe food, physically, socially, and economically. Despite being one of the highest palm oil-producing countries in Asia, Malaysia still shows inconsistent food security. Malaysia's growing population increases food demand but also raises challenges such as food insecurity, fuelled by low income, limited nutritional knowledge, and crisis such as COVID-19. To improve food security among households, the country needs to reduce imports, making food easier to access and affordable. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the factors that contribute to food insecurity among Malaysians. Logistic regression was handled with independent variables which are gender of household head, household size, the income of the household, access to credit, age of household head, and level of education of household head towards food security. This study was carried out on Malaysian households. The result of this study revealed that only several variables namely household size, income of the household, and level of education contributed significantly to food security in Malaysia.