The chart below shows the economic cost of two school lunch What is the most likely explanation for why the healthier lunch costs more?

The healthier option has been offered as a substitute to 'ordinary options', which has been developed to serve a previously unmet demand.

The higher price of the healthy option can be explained for two different reasons:

The market price of unhealthy foods is very cheap. If a healthy option wants to be delivered to students, more expensive healthy ingredients will have to be purchased and, hence, a larger price will have to be charged if the cafeteria at school wants to make some profit from selling those lunches. A healthy lunch might be perceived as a 'higher quality' alternative and consumers can perceive that eating it positions them somehow in a higher status and the would be willing to pay a higher price for it.