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Availability is the physical presence of foods - Availability refers to individuals having enough quantity, sufficient quality, and nutritional foods physically present in a person’s environment. This includes the supply and distribution of foods at stores, markets, gardens, and other places where individuals obtain food.

Access is the resources and means to obtain foods - Access refers to individual or household resources and means needed to obtain appropriate and nutritious foods. This includes both economic and physical resources. This dimension also takes into account the level of resources needed to ensure that access to food does not compromise satisfactory access to other basic needs like housing or health care.

Utilization is the intake of sufficient and safe foods - Utilization refers to the intake of sufficient and safe food and water to meet nutritional needs. This includes individuals' knowledge, skills, and confidence to plan meals and buy, prepare, and cook foods. It also includes their access to food safety knowledge, skills, tools, and resources.

Stability is the reliable supply of foods over time - Stability in food security refers to maintaining adequacy in food availability, access, and utilization over time. Stability includes the ability to ensure the other dimensions of food security are maintained in the event of sudden, short-term shocks, and through cyclical or seasonal changes. For example, the ability to maintain food availability, access, and utilization during a seasonal job layoff, onset of a health condition, periods of inflation, or through a natural disaster. Stability differs from the dimension of sustainability in that stability refers to shorter-term disruptions rather than the long-term sustainability of the food system.

Agency is the power to make decisions about foods eaten and produced - As a dimension of food security, agency refers to individuals’ and communities’ capacity to make decisions and take actions to shape their own relationships with food and food systems. This includes making choices about what they eat, the foods they produce, and how that food is produced, processed, and distributed. Agency also includes the power to engage, in their own terms, in governance structures and policy processes that shape the food system, as well as the ability to address power imbalances within the system.

Sustainability is the food system’s ability to provide long-term food security - Sustainability refers to food system practices that contribute to long-term regeneration of natural, social, and economic systems, ensuring the food needs of the present generations are met without compromising food needs of future generations. Sustainability encompasses the connections between the environment, the economy, society, and the political landscape to maintain food systems and support food security into the distant future.