The cost of a minimum set of food takes an essential place in the structure of the subsistence minimum, and largely determines the conditions of existence of the poorest segments of the population. In modern conditions of rising prices for vital foodstuffs, it is essential to analyze the cost of these goods in order to timely prevent the negative consequences of such an increase. The article is devoted to the assessment of changes in the actual average and minimum physiologically necessary living standards of citizens of the Russian Federation through a comparison of inflation indices calculated on the basis of consumer baskets and the index of changes in the value of average wages. Special attention is paid to the comparative analysis based on one-dimensional time series of the dynamics of the cost of five food baskets, the transition to comparable prices is reasoned. It is noted that food products can be divided into two groups. Prices for some grow monotonously, without the influence of the time of year, which is more typical for industrial goods. The second subset is products with pronounced seasonality, primarily vegetables, whose prices fall in the second half of summer and autumn, and then begin to increase. The presence of this component leads to the fact that the growth of basket values practically stops in summer, and the fastest is in winter. The contributions of individual food products to the cost of consumer baskets have been studied. Attention is paid to the difference between normative (i.e., given a priori) baskets and the baskets obtained as a result of the analysis of real consumption. The article reflects not only theoretical aspects of the analysis of the standard of living of the population and the cost of the grocery basket, but also practical results. The study of changes in the structure of the cost of each of the considered food baskets caused by changes in prices for the corresponding goods is carried out, the influence of various socio-economic indicators is not taken into account.