Linear Programming Models

Assignment 1, Combinatorial Optimization,

Spring Semester, 2024

Aleksandar Shurbevski
Instructor (write your student ID here)
a_shurbevski@kcg.edu

1 Problem
Imagine you run a student dormitory, and would like to prepare a healthy cafeteria
menu. You have a choice of five basic ingredients: Rice, eggs, milk, bananas, and
avocados. Each ingredient has a different proportion of four nutrients, fat, protein,
sugar, and fiber. The amount of each nutrient in the feed mix must be at least 12g,
75g, 45g, and 80g, for fat, protein, sugar, and fiber, respectively. The amount (g) of
nutrients per kg of basic ingredient is given in Table 1.

Table 1: Nutrients table

Nutrient Rice Eggs Milk Bananas Avocado

Fat 40 350 40 50 550
Protein 25 400 50 20 30
Sugar 800 100 150 750 100
Fiber 125 10 80 180 250

From Table 1, we can see that, for example, one kg of rice contains 40 g of fat,
25 g of protein, 800 g of sugar, and 125 g of fiber.
The price per kg:
• rice - 1500 ¥,
• eggs - 900 ¥,
• milk - 350 ¥,
• bananas - 600 ¥,
• avocados - 1200 ¥.
How many kgs of each of the ingredients need to be purchased to prepare a
healthy menu with the necessary nutrient amount at the lowest price?
Write a linear programming formulation for the problem.

1
2 Solution
2.1 Decision parameters
We need to determine the amount of each ingredient to buy.
Let us introduce the following decision variables:
rice x1
eggs x2
milk x3
bananas x4
avocados x5

2.2 Objective function

We want to minimize the total sum spent on ingredients, which is

1500x1 + 900x2 + 350x3 + 600x4 + 1200x

2.3 Formulation
Then, we get the following formulation:

Minimize:
1500x1 + 900x2 + 350x3 + 600x4 + 1200x5
Subject to:

40x1 + 350x2 + 40x3 + 50x4 + 550x5 ≥ 12

25x1 + 400x2 + 50x3 + 20x4 + 30x5 ≥ 75
800x1 + 100x2 + 150x3 + 750x4 + 100x5 ≥ 45
125x1 + 10x2 + 80x3 + 180x4 + 250x5 ≥ 80
x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 ≥0