Search results

1 – 10 of over 40000
Article
Publication date: 1 March 1984

Judith D. Frank

The National Food Survey (NFS) is a continuously operating survey which enquires into the food consumption and expenditure of a sample of households in Great Britain. The survey

Abstract

The National Food Survey (NFS) is a continuously operating survey which enquires into the food consumption and expenditure of a sample of households in Great Britain. The survey is carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) by a commercial agency, the British Market Research Bureau Limited, on survey samples selected by the Social Survey Division of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science, vol. 84 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1987

Judith Frank

The genesis and purpose of the National Food Survey is discussed. Originally to monitor and improve the “working‐class diet” the survey has broadened to analyse food consumption…

Abstract

The genesis and purpose of the National Food Survey is discussed. Originally to monitor and improve the “working‐class diet” the survey has broadened to analyse food consumption on seven levels. A major shift of interest has been from nutritional to economic. The survey is now of use to people involved in such disparate fields as applied economics, social medicine and market research.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 89 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1982

David Buss

The National Food Survey has been a British Institution for forty years now. It was started by the Ministry of Food in July 1940 ‘to assist the Government when considering the…

Abstract

The National Food Survey has been a British Institution for forty years now. It was started by the Ministry of Food in July 1940 ‘to assist the Government when considering the measures necessary to mitigate the effects of wartime food shortages’, and has subsequently been expanded by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food in order to ‘keep a continuous check on the food consumption and nutrition of all sections of the population, so providing a factual basis for decisions on food policy.’

Details

Nutrition & Food Science, vol. 82 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1969

Factors which influence consumer spending, among the most sought after in any field of market research, things people buy and why, is valuable data on which much industrial…

Abstract

Factors which influence consumer spending, among the most sought after in any field of market research, things people buy and why, is valuable data on which much industrial planning, advertising techniques and marketing is based, but in no other field of trade is consumer preference so closely related to pure economics, i.e., value received in money terms, as in food. With most other commodities, from clothes to cars, hair‐do's to houses, factors affecting consumer choice have different results; appearance, aesthetic quality and neighbourly competition, all play a part, though appearance in a few foods is not entirely without significance, e.g., white bread. Present high levels of consumer spending are said by politicians to be a danger to the country's economy; a more prosaic thought would be that Government spending, or squandering, constituted the greater threat. In the main, factors which influence household food expenditure are essentially down to earth—palatability, digestibility, keeping quality and how far a food will go in the preparation of meals, its value in money terms. The king‐pin in all market research on food must be the woman of the house; it is her laying out of the household purse that determines the amount of food expenditure and the varieties purchased week by week. A housewife's choice, however, is a complex of her family's likes and dislikes, rarely her own, and also determined by the amount allocated from her purse for this part of the household budget and the number of mouths she has to feed. Any tendency to experiment, to extend the variety of food, is only possible with a well‐filled purse; with a large family, a common complaint is of monotony in the diet. A factor of immense importance nowadays is whether the housewife is employed or not, and whether whole‐time or part‐time, and which part of the day she can be in her own home. To this may be attributed, as much as anything, the rise in consumption of convenience foods. Fortunately for the purposes of reasonable accuracy in the results of enquiries, housewives form a class, reliable and steady, unlikely to be contaminated by the palsied opinions of the so‐called lunatic fringe in this unquiet age. Any differences in food choice are likely to be regional, and settled dietary habits, passed on from one generation to another. Statistics from the National Food Surveys show the extent of these, and also consumer preferences as far as food commodity groups are concerned. The Surveys have been running long enough to show something of consumer trends but, of course, they do not exhibit reasons—why consumers buy and use certain foods, their attitudes to food marketing practices, and, in particular, to advertising. Advertising claims, misleading undoubtedly but within the law, have long been a source of controversy between those who worship at the shrine of truth and others less particular. Elsewhere, we review a special study of consumer reactions to aspects of the grocery trade in the U.S.A., and note that 32 per cent do not accept advertisements as being true, but 85 per cent find them interesting and informative. Advertising practices are probably subject to less statutory control in the United States than here, and the descriptions and verbiage certainly reach greater heights of absurdity, but the British housewife is likely to be no more discerning, able “to read between the lines”, than her counterpart in that country. A major difference, however, is that in Britain, more houswives prepare and cook meals for their families than in the United States. The greatest importance of advertising is in the introductory phase of a commodity; new and more vigorous advertising is necessary later to delay the onset of the decline phase of the commodity's life cycle; to ensure that sales can be maintained to prevent rises in supply costs. Advertising helps considerably in the acceptance of a branded food, but housewives tend to ignore cut‐throat competition between rival brands, and what weans a consumer from a brand is not competition in advertising, nor even new and more attractive presentation, but reduction in real price. The main pre‐occupation of the woman of the house is food adequacy, and especially that her children will have what she considers conforms to a nutritious diet, without argument or rebellion on the part of her progeny and without distinction. She knows that bulk foods, carbohydrates, are not necessarily nutritious, although her ideas of which foods contain vitamins or minerals or other important nutrient factors tends to be hazy. She does not pretend to enjoy shopping for food and therefore tends to follow a routine; it saves time and worry. Especially is this so with young married women, who may have to take small children along. Each housewife has her own mental standard of assessing “value”, and would have difficulty in defining it. Nutritional value forms part of it, however, in most women, who connote their food provision with health. The greatest concern is not necessarily positive health, but prevention or reduction of obesity, which is seen among adult members of the family, especially growing girls, as an adverse effect on their appearance, and the types of clothes they can wear. A few of the more intelligent families have an indefinable fear of ischaemic heart disease and its relation to food. When they take positive steps to control the diet for these purposes, they are quite frequently in the wrong direction and rather confused even when this is done on medical advice.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 71 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1980

Some months ago a national organisation established to keep a watchful eye on the Nation's diet expressed concern over the eating trends of people in what to them appeared to be…

Abstract

Some months ago a national organisation established to keep a watchful eye on the Nation's diet expressed concern over the eating trends of people in what to them appeared to be developing inbalances of necessary nutrient factors and the inadeuacy not so much of calories and energy values but in the nature and quality of main food factors. It was recommended that the national diet should be improved, but the authorities pointed to the National Food Survey results to show that the diet was not deficient; that the average daily intake of protein, vitamins, minerals and overall energy requirements were satisfied; all of which is true for the not‐too‐generous levels set. Even the pensioner households included in the Survey sample appear well‐fed. What causes concern is the year‐by‐year decrease in staple foods consumed—milk, red meat, bread, fresh vegetables—and the heavy reliance on refined, processed foods. In its annual reports on NFS reviews, the BFJ has almost monotonously referred to this downward trend. Individual NFS Reports do not reveal any serious deficiencies, as yet, but in the trend over the years—and herein lies the real value of the Survey and its data—few if any of the changes have been for the better; movements in food groups have tended to be downwards. If these trends continue, the time must surely come when there will be real deficiencies; that substitution within a food group cannot make good essential foods severely rationed by high prices.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 82 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1972

A.H.J. Baines and D.H. Buss

Any Government needs to make sure that its citizens have enough of the right kinds of food to eat. After air and water, there is no more basic human need; but in assessing the…

Abstract

Any Government needs to make sure that its citizens have enough of the right kinds of food to eat. After air and water, there is no more basic human need; but in assessing the adequacy of food supplies most Governments rely on data relating to production and external trade, rather than on a more direct measurement of food consumption. The statistical series Food Consumption Levels in the United Kingdom (which, despite its name, shows total amounts of foodstuffs available at a primary stage of distribution) can be matched in most developed countries; but such series cannot give any indication of the claims of different sections of the population on total supplies. In contrast, the annual reports of the National Food Survey Committee of Great Britain, entitled Household Food Consumption and Expenditure, provide a continuous evaluation of the amount and cost of food used by different types of household, a record on which a nutritional assessment can be based.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science, vol. 72 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1980

Reviewing the Food Standards Report on Misdescriptions contained in this issue—the terms, names, phrases widespread in the field of agriculture and food—one cannot fail to notice…

Abstract

Reviewing the Food Standards Report on Misdescriptions contained in this issue—the terms, names, phrases widespread in the field of agriculture and food—one cannot fail to notice the impressive role that words generally play in everyday use of language, especially in those areas where widespread common usage imports regional differences. The modern tendency is to give to words new meanings and nowhere is this so apparent as in the food industry; the Food Standards Committee considered a number of these. The FSC see the pictorial device as making a deeper impression than mere words in relation to consumer preference, which is undoubtedly true. Even Memory can be compartmentalized and especially with the increasing years, the memory tends to become photographic, retaining visual impressions more strongly than the written word. Auditory impressions depend largely on their accompaniments; if words are spoken with the showing of a picture or sung to a catchy tune, these will be more strongly retained than mere words on a printed label. At best, pictorial devices give rise to transient impressions, depending on the needs and interests of the viewer. Many look but do not see, and as for spoken words, these may “go in one ear and out of the other!”.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 82 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1975

One of the arguments used against British entry to the EEC was the loss of sovereignty; that Parliament would not be able to fully control all the statutory measures which would…

Abstract

One of the arguments used against British entry to the EEC was the loss of sovereignty; that Parliament would not be able to fully control all the statutory measures which would be applied to the people. EEC regulations apply without implementation by national governments, but since member‐states, through their representatives on Council and Commission, have participated, it is considered that national governments have in effect enacted them. EEC Directives as the name implies requires national governments to apply the provisions of the EEC measure; transitional exemptions up to five years are usually included for individual provisions, where internal adjustment is required. MAFF food regulations, implementing EEC Directives, have been made after this pattern for a number of food additives. The statutory measures are unlikely to present any greater difficulties than usual, but in interpretation, courts in this country have to consider EEC law above that of English and Scottish courts. The Court at Luxemburg exists mainly for interpretation, but courts and litigants have been advised against reference owing to the lengthy delays and the high court or court of sessions should make is interpretation based on EEC law.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 77 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1984

Judith Frank

The British National Food Survey (NFS) has a long and distinguished history. It is renowned world wide for the continuity of its operation. The survey has been enquiring into the…

Abstract

The British National Food Survey (NFS) has a long and distinguished history. It is renowned world wide for the continuity of its operation. The survey has been enquiring into the food consumption and expenditure of samples of households in Great Britain since the beginning of the Second World War in 1940. To start with only the diet of the ‘working classes’ was monitored but since the 1950s the survey has been expanded so that it now requests information from a wide cross section of the United Kingdom population.

Details

Nutrition & Food Science, vol. 84 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1969

Elsewhere in this issue we review the First (Interim) Report of the Joint Survey of Pesticide Residues in Foodstuffs, published by the Association of Public Analysts (Editor: Mr…

Abstract

Elsewhere in this issue we review the First (Interim) Report of the Joint Survey of Pesticide Residues in Foodstuffs, published by the Association of Public Analysts (Editor: Mr. D. G. Forbes, B.Sc., F.R.I.C.). The Scheme, planned with meticulous care and executed with the best spirit of co‐operation, sets a pattern for this type of investigation; there are other problems which could be studied in the same manner. Such a response from the bodies representing the major local authorities of the country and their food and drugs administrations—inspectors, food sampling officers, public analysts—is evidence of the concern felt over this particular form of contamination of food. It constitutes a public health problem of world‐wide dimensions. The annual reports of public analysts show that many are examining foods outside the Survey lists now that gas/liquid chromatography, spectroscopy and other highly refined methods of analysis are available to them.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 71 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

1 – 10 of over 40000