Household Food Consumption: The Influence of Household Characteristics

Abstract

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 7This paper reports an attempt to identify the effects of various household characteristics on household food consumption. The analysis was based on National Food Survey (NFS) data for Grent Britain for the calendar year 1982. Consumption (per person per week) of various food items was related to each of the main household characteristics on which information is collected in the course of the Survey-location (both country/region and type of area), income (generally of the head of the household), household composition, age of housewife, housing tenure and freezer ownership. The results indicated that all these variables are important in the explanation of households ' food consumption pat terns. Expenditure. London: HMSO.

Socio‐economic criteria and food choice across meals

“…To summarize, the greatest proportion of differences occurs for the variables "presence of children" and "KKP age", which concurs with Lund and Derry's findings that "household composition" and "age of housewife" are the Note: This indicates that, for example, there are statistically significant differences between the proportions of 38 per cent of foods consumed at breakfast when households are separated into those with and those without children best determinants [2]. However, in their study, these two variables were statistically significant determinants for over 50 per cent of foods considered.…”

“…It has been demonstrated that common usage of some socio-economic criteria to differentiate between households may not be a wholly appropriate strategy for market researchers concerned with household food consumption. Of the four variables considered, "presence of children in the household" performed best, but not as well as suggested by Lund and Derry [2]. The variable "household social class" performed least well.…”

“…Nearly 600 different foods were recorded by the sample households during the period of the survey. However, in order to be able to segment households and compare segments according to their consumption of particular foods, these foods were aggregated into 27 food groups (Lund and Derry [2] used National Food Survey data, aggregated into 40 groups). Since no data were available on quantity of each food consumed, the data for each food were expressed as percentages of the total number of foods consumed over the period.…”

“…Lund and Derry [2] found that certain variables of this type, among them household composition, region and age of housewife, are statistically significant determinants of food choice for a large number of the 40 foods which they studied using National Food Survey data. However, the variables income, type of area and household tenure are statistically significant determinants of choice for far fewer of these foods.…”

Attitudes Towards Food Safety and the Environment: A Comparison of Conswners in Japan and the U.S.1

“…Examination of the formation of individual and shared attitudes that influence purchasing patterns has not been given a high priority. While prices and incomes are important in consumer decisions, sociological factors, such as culture and household life-cycle, also play a crucial role, and non-economic factors, including attitudes, may be expanding in importance as incomes grow (Lacy 1989;Lund and Derry 1985;Tokoyama and Egaitsu 1994). This is true because, contrary to the assumptions used in many neoclassical economic models, 1) consumers never have perfect knowledge or information, 2) some consumer needs are potentially satiable, 3) substitution takes place between clusters of goods rather than specific goods, 4) consumers have hierarchies of needs and wants, 5) some consumer "needs," or desires, have a tendency to be transformed as income allows, and 6) consumer decisions are influenced by information received from others with whom the consumer is socially connected (Lavoie 1994).…”