Public policies to contain the spread of coronavirus disease in Mexico could have had an effect on food purchase patterns.
The objective of the study was to assess changes in the quantity of food and ...beverages purchased and proportion spent on food consumed away from home during the coronavirus disease pandemic in Mexican households.
This study is a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2014-2020.
The study included 234,631 households with information on food and beverages purchases from 2014 to 2020.
Food and beverage purchases were classified into six categories: basic, nonbasic energy-dense foods, prepared food for consumption at home, water, milk, and sugar-sweetened beverages. In the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2014-2020, expenditures on food and beverages consumed away from home are not classified into any specific items but represents more than 10% of food and beverage expenditures; therefore, the analyses included the proportion of food and beverage expenditures spent on food consumed away from home.
A two-part model was used to evaluate changes in the quantity of food purchased and the proportion spent away from home during the coronavirus disease pandemic in 2020 compared with 2018, adjusting for socio-demographic variables, gross domestic product and previous survey rounds. Results are presented at the national level, by income quintile and by place of residence.
Purchases of basic food increased by 17 g/capita/day at the national level and 22.4 g/capita/day in urban areas (P < 0.001). Purchases of nonbasic energy-dense foods decreased both at the national level (–4.2 g/capita/day; P < 0.001) and by place of residence (–4.8 g/capita/day; P < 0.001 in urban areas and –2.5 g/capita/day; P = 0.001 in rural settings). Purchases of prepared food increased 16 g/capita/day (P < 0.001). In rural areas, purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages increased 7.2 mL/per capita/day (P < 0.001). For the lowest income quintile purchases of processed meat increased 2.4 g/capita/day (P < 0.001). The proportion spent on food consumed away from home decreased by –44.9% (P < 0.001).
Results of this study show that during the coronavirus disease lockdown there was an increase in basic and prepared food purchases, whereas purchases of nonbasic energy-dense foods and the proportion spent on food consumed away from home decreased. However, findings showed an increase in sugar-sweetened beverages purchases among rural dwellers and an increase in purchases of processed meat among the lowest income quintile. Various factors such as income reductions, unemployment, mobility restrictions, or increases in prices may have led the observed changes. Future research should be conducted to analyze these potential pathways.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ
Micronutrient deficiency conditions are a major global public health problem. While the private sector has an important role in addressing this problem, the main responsibility lies with national ...governments, in cooperation with international agencies and donors. Mandatory fortification of basic foods provides a basic necessary intake for the majority and needs to be supported by provision of essential vitamin and mineral supplements for mothers and children and other high risk groups. Fortification by government mandate and regulation is essential with cooperation by private sector food manufacturers, and in the context of broader policies for poverty reduction, education and agricultural reform. Iron, iodine, vitamin A, vitamin B complex, folic acid, zinc, vitamin D and vitamin B12 are prime examples of international fortification experience achieved by proactive governmental nutrition policies. These are essential to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and their follow-up sustainable global health targets. National governmental policies for nutritional security and initiatives are essential to implement both food fortification and targeted supplementation policies to reduce the huge burden of micronutrient deficiency conditions in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world.
En el primer semestre de 2006 finalizó un periodo de seis años de estabilidad en los precios de los alimentos en México, apenas interrumpido por las alzas, relativamente moderadas, de fines de 2004. ...En el segundo semestre de 2006 se presentaron las primeras alzas sensibles en los precios de los alimentos, y a partir de septiembre las alzas se intensificaron, para culminar con la elevación del precio de la tortilla en enero de 2007. Durante los dos últimos años, de junio de 2006 a junio de 2008, mientras el índice general de precios al consumidor ha subido 9.4%, el promedio de aumento en los alimentos fue 17.0%. A fines de mayo de 2008 el Presidente de la República anunció 19 medidas para enfrentar la crisis alimentaria, cubriendo tres ejes: i) favorecer el acceso a los productos internacionales al mejor precio posible, ii) impulsar la producción de alimentos, iii) proteger el ingreso de las familias pobres.
Szekunder kutatásunk keretében a magyar és román élelmiszerfogyasztás jelenlegi és várható tendenciáinak a feltárására törekedtünk. Korrelációs vizsgálatunk eredményei szerint az élelmiszerárak alig, ...a reáljövedelmek viszont nagymértékben meghatározzák az alapvető élelmiszerek keresletét mind a hazai, mind pedig a román fogyasztók körében. A román élelmiszerfogyasztást a reáljövedelmek mellett a tradicionális vallási és gasztronómiai hagyományok is jelentősen befolyásolják. Trendszámításunk eredményei alapján, Magyarországon a gyümölcs- és burgonyafogyasztás, Romániában pedig a hús- és tejtermékfogyasztás mennyiségi növekedésére lehet számítani. Összességében megállapítható, hogy a magyar és román táplálkozás nem túl egészséges, mivel a napi tápanyagbevitel jóval az ajánlott szint felett van mindkét országban.
--- Within the frame of our secondary research we were pursuing to explore the actual and expected tendency of the Hungarian and Romanian food consuming. Based on our correlation analisys we determined that the food prices have less impact on the basic food demand but especially the real income influences the needs both of the Hungarian and Romanian customers. Besides the real income the Romanian food consuming is strongly affected by the religious and gastronomic traditions. As of the results of our study an increase of the fruit and potato consuming in Hungary and the meat and milk consuming in Romania is to be expected. Overall, the diet is unhealthy in Hungary as well as in Romania as the daily nutriment intake is much below of the recommended quantity in both countries.
An educational intervention trial to increase calcium (Ca) intake was conducted on female college students taking a dietician course and the efficacy of the trial was assessed by a prospective cohort ...study. The one hundred and eight 18-or 19-year-old students were divided into two cohorts, i.e., a control group and an intervention group. The educational intervention was given to the intervention group only and both group received 3 surveys, before the intervention (baseline, BL), 1 week after the intervention (WAI), and 1 year after the intervention (YAI). The amount of Ca intake at BL did not differ significantly between the cohorts. The Ca intake of the control group did not change significantly in the 3 surveys. The intervention group significantly increased Ca intake at WAI and maintained a higher level of Ca intake at the time of YAI. These results suggest some efficacy of the educa-tional intervention to increase Ca intake in the female college students.
Modifying the national poverty line to the context of observed consumption patterns of the poor is becoming popular. A context-specific poverty line would be more consistent with preferences. This ...paper provides theoretical and empirical evidence that the contrary holds and that the national poverty line is more appropriate for comparing living standards among the poor, at least under prevailing conditions in Mozambique and Ghana. The problem lies in the risk of downscaling the burden associated with cheap-calorie diets and the low nonfood component of the rural poor. The paper illustrates how observed behavior may neither reveal preferences nor detect heterogeneous preferences among the poor. Rather, the consumption pattern is the upshot of the poverty condition itself. Poverty is confused with preferences if observed cheap-calorie diets are seen as a matter of taste, whereas in fact they reflect a lack of means to consume a preferred diet of higher quality, as food Engel curve estimates indicate. Likewise, a smaller nonfood component is not a matter of a particular distaste, but an adaptation to the fact that various nonfood items (such as transport) and basic services (such as electricity and health) are simply absent in rural areas.
This paper seeks to provide evidence on the extent of household vulnerability to exogenous economic shocks in the Pacific region and consider policy options that help to manage this risk. ...Characteristics of the region such as remoteness, small size, dispersion, and urbanizing populations lead to pronounced vulnerabilities. The paper presents macroeconomic and distributional analysis and complements it with results of a micro-simulation model customized for this work based on a model used previously by the World Bank to analyze the impacts of the Food and Fuel Price Crisis. The results of micro-simulations serve to highlight the very high levels of economic vulnerability faced in the region. Impacts of economic shocks are not confined to well-off individuals, but have major impacts on the poor. Even moderate shocks are likely to push sizeable fractions of the population below the poverty line. The shocks considered are not worst case scenarios, but those that can and have occurred frequently. The results show that households are hard hit by increases in oil prices, especially in remote islands where freight costs are higher, while countries on aggregate, and individual households, are exposed to volatility in the prices of the one or two imported food commodities that they depend on. Livelihoods are also often driven by external demand. In particular, many poor households in countries like Papua New Guinea have livelihood strategies centered on cash crops. The results point to the importance of helping households of the Pacific to manage the risk inherent in their lives while prudently using macroeconomic tools at the disposal of the government.
Farm-gate buying by small itinerant buyers is the dominant mode of primary marketing in Tanzania's maize market. This paper estimates the effect of household distance to market on maize farm-gate ...prices, and the extent to which seasonally determined search costs can explain price variations between the lean and the harvest seasons using data from the most recent Tanzania Household Budget Survey (2007). The author observes that greater distance to market depresses farm-gate prices but that it is a relatively modest effect, and that this effect is pro-cyclical in that it is stronger during the harvest season when prices are lowest. The paper discusses the latter result with reference to search costs as an explanatory factor. It also briefly places the findings in the context of Tanzania's food security patterns, making a link between food insecurity and high search costs. The main policy conclusion is that coordinating mechanisms such as village market places (in parallel with farm-gate buying) may reduce transaction costs in rural markets.
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