About food consumption estimates

Measuring hunger, food security and food consumption

Valuable information about food consumption in a population can be derived from household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES). In the absence of individual quantitative dietary intake surveys, which provide more detailed information on actual food consumption and nutrient intakes, HCES can provide estimates of apparent food consumption and nutrient intake.

Household consumption and expenditure surveys

Household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES), which are usually representative at national and subnational levels, are designed to inform economic policies, provide poverty estimates, compute the consumer price index, among others. However, they are also used to produce food and nutrient statistics. Types of HCES include: i) household budget surveys; ii) household income and expenditure surveys; iii) integrated household surveys; and iv) living standard measurement surveys.

Information collected through HCES include: i) household characteristics (region, urban-rural, etc.); ii) household members’ characteristics (sex, age, education, occupation, income and/or expenditures); and iii) food acquired and/or consumed by households (sometimes also at the individual level for food consumed away from home) in terms of quantities and/or monetary values from all food sources.

What are the food and nutrient statistics from HCES useful for?

Estimates of apparent food consumption and nutrient intake in a given population are useful to:

analyze apparent food consumption and nutrient intake patterns at national and subnational levels (e.g., by province, state, region, urban-rural);
provide information on dietary patterns in terms of quantities, and estimates of dietary energy, macro and micronutrients, in the absence of individual-level data;
identify potential vehicles for food fortification, in the absence of individual-level data;
produce indicators based on food monetary values, such as nutrient unit cost;
analyze consumption estimates in relation to income or total expenditure;
study the relationship between household food consumption and food insecurity severity based on experience-based food insecurity measures when both types of data are collected in the same survey.

Related publications

The Food and Diet domain on FAOSTAT

The Food and Diet Domain on FAOSTAT is a joint effort of the FAO Food and Nutrition Division, the FAO Statistics Division and the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division with the objectives of harmonizing the processing of dietary data, increasing its dissemination, and improving the utilization of food supply, food consumption, and diet quality statistics and indicators. The data sources are: (a) supply utilization accounts (SUA); (b) household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES); and (c) individual quantitative dietary intake surveys. The Domain also presents statistics on women’s dietary diversity, from the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) indicator. Nutrient conversion tables for the SUA and HCES were compiled based on food composition tables evaluated to be of good quality based on the FAO/INFOODS evaluation framework. The statistics from SUA and HCES are harmonized in terms of the list of nutrients presented, the FAO/INFOODS component tagnames, and following the FAO/INFOODS food matching approach. Food group statistics from these data types are further harmonized with those from individual quantitative dietary survey data using the FAO/WHO GIFT nutrition-sensitive food group classification.

Measuring hunger, food security and food consumption