Glossary of terms used in the Survey
Adult A person of 18 years of age or over, however, solely for purposes of classifying households according to their composition, heads of household and diary-keepers under 18 years of age are regarded as adults.
Average consumption For the main Survey, the aggregate amount of
household food obtained for consumption by the households in the sample divided by the total number of persons in the sample. For the eating out extension, the aggregate amount of eating out consumption by the people in the extension sample divided by the number of people in the extension sample.
Average expenditure For the main Survey, the aggregate amount spent by the households in the sample divided by the total number of persons in the sample. For the eating out extension, the aggregate eating out expenditure by the people in the extension sample, divided by the number of people in the extension sample.
Average price The aggregate expenditure by the households in the sample on an item in the Survey Classification of foods, divided by the aggregate quantity of that item purchased by these households. It is therefore, more strictly an ‘average unit value’.
Child A person under 18 years of age; however, solely for purposes of classifying households according to their composition, heads of household and diary-keepers under 18 years of age are regarded as adults.
Composite meals and snacks For the eating out extension, these are defined as meals or snacks for which a cost can only be given for a number of foods together. A cost is given for the whole meal, and the individual components are recorded for use in calculating consumption and nutritional values.
Convenience foods Those processed foods for which the degree of preparation has been carried to an advanced stage by the manufacturer and which may be used as labour-saving alternatives to less highly processed products. The convenience foods distinguished by the Survey are cooked and canned meats, meat products (other than uncooked sausages), cooked and canned fish, fish products, canned vegetables, vegetable products, canned fruit, fruit juices, cakes and pastries, biscuits, breakfast cereals, canned, fresh and dried pasta, instant coffee and coffee essences, baby foods, canned soups, dehydrated soups, ice-cream, and all frozen foods which fulfil the requirements of the previous sentence.
Eating Out consumption Individual consumption outside the home of all food and drink not obtained from household stocks, regardless of who paid for the food or drink.
Eating Out expenditure Individual expenditure on all food and drink purchased for eating out consumption, whether for consumption by the purchaser or others or both. Expenditure on food and drink for ‘business’ purposes, i.e. that which is to be reclaimed as business expenses, is not included.
Eating Out extension An additional section of the National Food Survey which asks half of the main survey households to record their eating out consumption and eating out expenditure.
Garden and allotment produce, etc Food which entered the household without payment, and was consumed during the week of participation in the Survey. It includes supplies obtained from a garden, allotment or farm, or from an employer, but not gifts of food from one household in Great Britain to another if such food has been purchased by the donating household. (See also Value of garden and allotment produced, etc).
Household For the Survey purposes, this is defined as a group of persons living in the same dwelling and sharing common catering arrangements.
Household food obtained for consumption Food purchases from all sources (including purchases in bulk) made by households during their week of participation in the Survey and intended for human consumption during that week or later, plus any garden or allotment produce, etc which households actually consumed while participating in the Survey, but excluding sweets, alcohol, soft drinks and meals or snacks purchased for eating out consumption. For an individual household, the quantity of food thus obtained for consumption, or estimates of nutrient intake derived from it, may differ from actual consumption because of changes in household stocks during the week and because of wastage. Averaged over a sufficiently large group of households and a sufficiently long period of time, increases in household stocks might reasonably be expected to differ only slightly from depletions.
Income group Households are grouped into eight income groups (A1, A2, B, C, D, E1, E2 and OAP) according to the ascertained or estimated gross income of the head of the household or of the principal earner in the household (if the weekly income of the head is less than the amount defining the upper limit to income group D). Households without an earner (E1 and E2) are those with no person normally working more than ten hours a week, however of these, Pensioner Households and those with at least one person unemployed for less than a year are not counted as households without an earner.
Main Survey The core part of the National Food Survey, for which the main estimates of average consumption and average expenditure for
household food obtained for consumption are derived.
Meals For the eating out extension, a meal is an eating occasion which cannot be described by a single food item code, but which includes a main dish. In addition a meal must be served and consumed on the premises of one
of the following types of outlet: respondent’s workplace, school, restaurant, public house, catering facilities on trains, buses or aeroplanes, meals on wheels or other catering facilities such as hospitals, football grounds, etc. A meal is distinct from a meal occasion, which is defined as breakfast, mid-day or evening meal or other eating or drinking occasion and may comprise a meal or drink or snack or any combination of these.
Net balance The net balance for an individual (a member of the household or a visitor) is a measure of the proportion of the individuals’ food needs which are met by meals eaten in the home by that individual during the Survey week. Each meal is given a weight in proportion to its normal importance, the relative weights currently used being breakfast 3, mid-day meal 4, evening meal 7. These weights were changed during 1991; previously, separate weights for tea (2) and supper (5) were used if two evening meals were taken; now a light tea or supper is disregarded in this calculation. The net balance is used when relating nutrient intakes to reference intakes (based on age and sex etc).
Nutrients In addition to the energy value of food expressed in terms of kilocalories and MegaJoules (4.184 MJ = 1,000 kilocalories), the food is evaluated in terms of the following nutrients:
Protein (animal and total), fat (including the component saturated, monosaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids), carbohydrate (including total sugars, non-milk extrinsic sugars and starch), fibre (as non-starch polysaccharides), calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, sodium, potassium, vitamin A (retinol, B-carotene, retinol equivalent), thiamin, riboflavin, niacin equivalent, folate, vitamins B6, B12, C, D and E, cholesterol, copper, manganese, phosphorus, biotin and pantothenic acid.
Pensioner households (OAP) Households in which at least three-quarters of total income is derived from state retirement pensions or similar pensions and/or supplementary pensions or allowances paid in supplementation or instead of such pensions. Such households will include at least one person over the state retirement age.
Person An individual of any age who, during the week of the Survey, spends at least four nights in the household (‘at home’) and has at least one meal a day from the household food supply on at least four days, except that if he/she is the head of the household, or the diary-keeper, he or she is regarded as a person irrespective of the above conditions.
Price index A price index of Fisher ‘Ideal’ type is used; this index is the geometric means of two indices with weights relating to the earlier and later periods respectively or, in the case of non-temporal comparisons (e.g. regional, type of area, income group and household composition), with weights relating to the group under consideration and the national average respectively.
Quantity index This index is also of the Fisher ‘Ideal’ type. The price and quantity indices together thus account for the whole of the expenditure difference between the two periods or groups being compared.
Real price The price of an item in relation to the price of all goods and services. The term is used when referring to changes in the price of an item over a period of time. The real prices quoted in this report are obtained by dividing the average price paid at a point in time by the Index of Retail Prices (All Items) at that time.
Regions Government Office Regions except that Merseyside is combined with the North West because of its relatively small sample size.
Seasonal foods Those foods which regularly exhibit a marked seasonal variation in price or in consumption; for the purposes of the Survey these are deemed to be eggs, fresh and processed fish, shellfish, potatoes, fresh vegetables and fresh fruit.
Snacks For the eating out extension, snacks are all eating out occasions other than those classified as meals (but including any eating out occasion referred to as snack by the respondent even if this also fulfils the meal definition). They may be from any outlet and contain any food item or combination of items.
Value of consumption Expenditure plus value of garden and allotment produce, etc.
Value of garden and allotment produce, etc The value imputed to such supplies received by a group of households is derived from the average prices currently paid by the group for corresponding purchases. This appears to be the only practicable method of valuing these supplies, even though if the households concerned had not had access to them, they would probably not have consumed as much of these foods, and would therefore have spent less on them than the estimated value of their consumption (though they might have spent more on other foods). Free school milk and free welfare milk are valued at the average price paid by the group for full price milk. (See also