Topic guide to: Food Consumption

Family Food

Department: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
A report on the Expenditure and Food Survey.

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Food Statistics Pocket book

Department: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Provides a concise round-up of statistics on food covering the economic, social and environmental aspects of the food we eat.

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Food consumption statistics are from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey run by DH. The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) rolling programme is a continuous cross-sectional survey of the food consumption, nutrient intakes and nutritional status of people aged 18 months and older living in private households in the UK. It covers all four countries of the UK and is designed to be representative of the UK population.

Food purchase statistics are from the Family Food Module of the Living Costs and Food Survey. Statistics cover all households in the UK and the data is collected continuously throughout the year. They show trends in expenditure, purchases by type of food and demographic characteristics, and estimates of average energy and nutrient intakes based on food purchases. Historically the survey was known as the National Food Survey and there are estimates for some foods going back to 1940.

Household food and drink waste linked to food and drink purchases bridge the gap between food purchases and food consumption. These statistics are published within the heading of Family Food. Estimates are based on a household bin survey carried out by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) in 2007 and a kitchen diary survey in 2008. Statistics show that approximately fifteen percent of all the food and drink purchases that could have been eaten are wasted. Wastage rates are shown for different types of food and drink and for various nutrients.

Food transport indicators include four key indicators that measure the environmental and social impact of food transport for UK consumers: urban food kilometres, HGV food kilometres, air food kilometres and CO2 emissions from food transport. Most of the data is sourced from National Statistics separately published by the Department for Transport and HM Revenue and Customs.

Statistics on food safety cover reported incidents and enforcement activity. The first annual report on food safety incidents was published in May 2007. This and later reports show how many food incidents the Agency handled in a year, and what action was taken to protect consumers. Reports on the enforcement of food law by local authorities (LAs) across the UK are based on LA monitoring data. The monitoring data in 2008/09 is the first provided under the new monitoring system, LAEMS (Local Authority Enforcement Monitoring System) and provides, for the first time, comprehensive data on UK food business compliance levels.

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Sampling frame

The Living Costs and Food (LCF) sample for Great Britain is a multi-stage stratified random sample with clustering. It is drawn from the Small Users file of the Postcode Address File (the Post Office’s list of addresses). The Northern Ireland sample is drawn as a random sample of addresses from the Land and Property Services Agency list. 

The LCF has been weighted to reduce the effect of non-response bias and produce population totals and means. The weights are produced in two stages. First, the data are weighted to compensate for non-response (sample-based weighting). Second, the sample distribution is weighted so that it matches the population distribution in terms of region, age group and sex (population-based weighting). 

Purchased quantities and portion sizes

Using the recorded diaries and interviews the survey records:

• weight/volume and amount paid for all food and drink brought home (including free food)
• amount paid for takeaway meals and snacks eaten at home. Defra estimates portion size
• amount paid for all food and drink consumed away from home and type of meal, and
• free food eaten within the household and away from home

For household purchases, the volumes are collected in the diaries and through till receipts. This is not possible for eating out, takeaways and some instances of free food. For these items Defra uses estimated portion sizes to calculate weight/volume and in turn, nutrient intakes. Where possible, whole meals eaten out are split into food components.

Intakes

Estimated nutrient intakes are calculated using nutrient composition data supplied by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The majority of the data is from the FSA’s nutrient analysis programme, supplemented by values from manufacturers and retailers. Each of the 500 food codes in the LCF is made up of a number of sub-codes with nutrient composition data attached. A weighted average nutrient composition is calculated for each food code based on estimates of the market share of each sub-code. The nutrient composition data are updated on a rolling basis to keep information in line with new or reformulated products. All nutrient compositions are based on edible food and take into account inedible waste, for example, banana skins.

Trends and ticks

Trend indicators and reliability ticks are published alongside many of the estimates within this publication. The aim of these quality assessments is to make estimates on purchases, expenditure and intakes easier to interpret and use. In all cases, the method is approximate and based on sampling errors ignoring any other kinds of error.

The reliability ticks come directly from the approximate standard errors of the estimates.  They indicate how reliable the estimate is by looking at the relative standard errors of the estimate. 

Trend indicators in the form of an arrow are intended to provide a guide as to whether there is a short-term trend. Four years is chosen as the period over which to check for the presence of a statistically significant trend, since it is considered long enough to show a trend and short enough to be current.

For more information on methodology see the Family Food website.

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