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Lec 9 - Food Consumption at The National Level

The document discusses methods for measuring food consumption at the national and household levels. At the national level, Food Balance Sheets are used to measure average food availability by accounting for production, imports, exports, and other changes. They do not capture differences between groups or wastage. Household surveys collect data on actual food quantities consumed by sampling households. Common household methods include food accounts, inventories, records, and recall interviews.

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rouzait abdullah
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228 views10 pages

Lec 9 - Food Consumption at The National Level

The document discusses methods for measuring food consumption at the national and household levels. At the national level, Food Balance Sheets are used to measure average food availability by accounting for production, imports, exports, and other changes. They do not capture differences between groups or wastage. Household surveys collect data on actual food quantities consumed by sampling households. Common household methods include food accounts, inventories, records, and recall interviews.

Uploaded by

rouzait abdullah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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2021-11-03

Measuring Food Consumption At

The National Level And The

Household Level

Food Balance sheet

• The Food and Agriculture Organization


(FAO) in Rome has for many years collected
statistical data on the production, trade
and utilization of agricultural commodities
for all countries worldwide.

• These database is used (among other


things) to set up so-called Food Balance
Sheets (previously called: Supply-
Utilization-Accounts)

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• Food Balance Sheets measure the average food


availability for a specific referenced period.

• They do not directly measure food intake or


consumption due to wastage within the household
(e.g., plate wastage). FBS should therefore be
considered as measuring the ‘average food
available for human consumption’.

• They are extracted out of time series SUAs and


report a single year (or an average over a number of
years), multiplying the food available by the nutritive
factors, to access the calories, protein and fat per
caput available to the general population.

National Data: Food Balance Sheet


+ Domestic Food Production -
Food taken from stocks

Food imports
Food added to stocks

Food exports

Animal consumption

Consumed by humans

Distributable between total population

Per capita food consumption

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Food Balance Sheet - limitations

1. FBS do not take account of seasonal variations. Annual calorie


intake can be misleading, hiding periods of food surplus &
shortfall.

2. FBS only shows average consumption in the population. They


do not tell us anything about differences in the consumption
patterns of different groups within the population, e.g., by age,
gender, economic groups, or spatial variation across
ecological/geographical areas.

3. Data quality: often there is infrequent or no data for many of


the commodities. Particularly in the developing world, many
countries do not send any data on production or trade. These
data gaps, or estimated data, cannot be perceived directly from
the FBS results.

Food Balance Sheet – limitations (continued)

4. The accuracy of FBS is only as good as the underlying basic statistics of


population, supply and utilization of foods and nutritive value data of
various foods.

5. Missing data: some countries do not declare trade of certain


commodities due to cultural or religious sensitivities (e.g., alcohol). How do
we account for them the FBS?

6. Inconsistent data: Even among developed countries, despite abundant


official data, information reported by different agencies is often not
consistent.

7. Interpreting FBS results: FBS measure calorie intake prior to cooking and
consumption (i.e., the quantities of food quantities reaching the consumer).
The amount of food actually consumed may be lower than the quantity
shown depending on the degree of losses of edible food and nutrients in
the household.

THERE IS NO COUNTRY WITH A PERFECT FBS

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Food Balance Sheets – advantages

➢ FBS still provides the most comprehensive picture of supply


and utilization of a country’s food supply.

➢ FBS are extremely useful for economists, planners, and


health experts, despite the difficulties in obtaining accurate
data and interpreting the results.
1. FBS over a period of years show overall trends in the
national food supply, changes in types of food consumed,
and reveal the extent to which food supply as a whole is
adequate in relation to nutritional requirements.
2. They are a powerful means of bringing together from
different sources, information about a food economy and
are excellent for showing very broad changes in a food
economy over time.

Food Balance Sheets – advantages (continued)

3. In some cases, they can be used to identify important


gaps in the available data, or even contradictory and
conflicting data that can used as a basis for discussion on
improvements required for the underlying data.

4. In the absence of a comprehensive data sets from


household surveys, FBS represent the only source of
standardized data that permit international comparisons
over time.

5. It can also be used to create supplementary indicators


such as the Import Dependency Ratio (IDR) and Self-
Sufficiency Ratio.

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It provides an essential information on a country's food


system.
They provide a complete balance for all agricultural
commodities (including food crops).
It has 3 main parts:

1. Domestic supply: production, imports, stock changes


and exports.

2. Domestic utilization: feed, seed, processing, waste,


other uses, and food.

3. Per-capita values : (in kg per person per year). This


sections also includes corresponding values for the
calories, protein and fat content.

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Household Data

• The main objective of household food consumption


or dietary surveys is to collect data on the quantities
of food items consumed by a representative sample
of households selected from the population.
• Household level data on food availability can be used
to:
• make comparisons between different communities and socio-economic groups;
• look at trends in diet in the population.
• However, these data will not provide information on
• the distribution of foods within the household

Household level

1. Food account method


2. Inventory method
3. Household record method
4. List-recall method

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Food account method:

The housewife or fieldworker must keep a day – by day record of


the amounts of all foods purchased for the family during the
period of the study.
Foods obtained as gifts or payments in kind and home produced
foods must be included in the record.
This method assumes either that there is no significant changes in
the food reserves or stores within a household during the study,
or the average households.

It may cover 7 days

Inventory method:

In this method, a fieldworker takes an inventory of all


food in the household at both the beginning and end
of the survey period.

The fieldworker also records the weights of all foods


brought into the house during this same period.

It takes in consideration that changes in the food


reserves or stores of individuals households are
taken into account

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Household record method:


This method may be used when information is wanted on the
foods available for consumption in the household during the
day (s) of observation.

The amounts of foods prepared and served may be weighed or


estimated in household measures by the housewife.

Foods eaten other than by household members should be


weighed or estimated and the amount subtracted from the
total amount available for consumption.

Subjects in the survey may individually record foods obtained


and eaten outside the household.

List-recall method:

In this method, the interviewer uses a list of


major food items in a structured questionnaire to
help the respondent recall the amount and price
of all foods used in the household during the
period of the study.

Estimates of food used as well as food purchased.

Needs only single interview as it is based on recall


rather than current record

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