Estimates of food consumption and energy and nutrition intakes in the UK 2002/03: results from the latest Expenditure and Food Survey

摘要

The results from the latest Expenditure and Food Survey (EPS) were published in June 2004 (National Statistics 2004). The EPS was established in April 2001 and is jointly funded by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and theOffice for National Statistics (ONS). The survey is effectively a merger of the National Food Survey (NFS) and the Family Expenditure Survey. It still measures household consumption rather than consumption by individuals, by recording all food/drink purchases entering the household during the study period, which has been extended from 1 to 2 weeks. But a main difference is that the quality of the out-of-home consumption data has been improved in that for each household completing a diary, each householdmember over the age of 7 years now completes a diary on everything they spend on food or drink rather than this being done by a subsample. The advantage of this survey method for out-of-home consumption is that there is less likely to be underreporting,as each respondent keeps his or her own diary, as well as respondents only measuring expenditure on out-of-home consumption rather than consumption per se. Furthermore, incorporation of the two surveys means that information on smoking and a range of other variables is now available for comparison with dietary intake. The survey year runs from 1 April until 31 March. The survey results do not yet include free meals, such as school meals, and consumption and expenditure levels are presented as an average across family members and so do not reflect intakes of individuals.