Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food Security 2372-0107 3 2 2015 08 11 Characteristics of Social Vulnerability and Food Insecurity among Urban Families in Extreme Poverty in Brazil 62 68 EN Daniela Sanches Frozi Department of Applied and Social Nutrition, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Full Member of the National Council for Food and Nutritional Security, Brasilia, DF, Brazil Rosely Sichieri Sandra Maria Chaves dos Santos Rosangela Alves Pereira JFS2015324 10.12691/jfs-3-2-4 2015 07 02 2015 07 25 2015 08 11 This study aimed to characterize food insecurity and strategies to cope with food scarcity in 1,085 families evaluated in a cross-sectional population-based study conducted in a low-income neighborhood of the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, Brazil. Data were collected in personal interviews applying a structured survey which included a food frequency questionnaire and the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. Families were classified as 'extremely poor', if per capita family income was under US$1.00 per day or, otherwise, as 'out of extreme poverty'. 'Extremely poor' families were also stratified as beneficiaries or not of cash transfer programs which were later consolidated within the Programa Bolsa Família. Overall, the studied families lived under critical sanitary conditions. Families in extreme poverty presented worse conditions of household sanitation, food insecurity and reported poorer food quality, less frequent consumption of fruit and vegetables, and increased use of practices and strategies to alleviate food shortages than families free of extreme poverty. The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity among 'out of extreme poverty' families was at least five times lower than that observed in families living under extreme poverty (p<0.01). Extremely poor family heads were mostly young, female, black or mixed, or low educated individuals, characteristics which regularly coincide with social vulnerability.