Abstract
Background: Studying dietary trends can help monitor progress towards healthier and more sustainable diets but longitudinal data are often confounded by lack of standardized methods. Two main data sources are used for longitudinal analysis of diets: food balance sheets on food supply (FBS) and household budget surveys on food purchased (HBS). Methods: We used UK longitudinal dietary data on food supply, provided by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) (FAO-FBS, 1961-2018), and food purchases, provided by Defra (Defra-HBS, 1942-2018). We assessed how trends in dietary change per capita compared between FAO-FBS and Defra-HBS for calories, meat and fish, nuts and pulses, and dairy, and how disparities have changed over time. Results:FAO-FBS estimates were significantly higher (p<0.001) than Defra-HBS for calorie intake and all food types, except nuts and pulses which weresignificantly lower (p<0.001). These differences are partly due toinclusion of retail waste in FAO-FBS data and under-reporting in Defra-HBS data. The disparities between the two datasets increased over time for calories, meat and dairy; did not change for fish; and decreased for nuts and pulses . Between 1961 and 2018, both FAO-FBS and Defra-FBS showed an increase in meat intake (+11.5% and +1.4%, respectively) and a decrease in fish (-3.3% and -3.2%, respectively) and dairy intake (-11.2% and -22.4%). Temporal trends did not agree between the two datasets for calories, and nuts and pulses. Conclusions: Our finding raises questions over the robustness of both data sources for monitoring UK dietary change, especially when used for evidence-based decision making around health, climate change and sustainability.
Highlights
Monitoring dietary trends is important for measuring progress towards healthier and more sustainable diets
Defra-household budget surveys on food purchased (HBS) for calorie intake and all food types, except nuts and pulses which were significantly lower (p
Averaged across all years between 1961 and 2018 (1974–2018 for nuts and pulses), FAO-FBS food supply data reported significantly higher per capita outputs than Defra-HBS food purchases for meat and fish (V=0, n=58, p
Summary
Monitoring dietary trends is important for measuring progress towards healthier and more sustainable diets. While several longitudinal monitoring databases exist, a number of challenges limit their usefulness for analysis including scarcity of standardized methods (De Keyzer et al, 2015; Perignon et al, 2017), lack of waste monitoring (Whybrow et al, 2017) and variation in the stages of food production being measured (Bandy et al, 2019; Serra-Majem et al, 2003) Both food balance sheets (FBS) (published by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), hereafter referred to as FAO-FBS) and household budget surveys (HBS) (published by Defra in the United Kingdom (UK), hereafter referred to as Defra-HBS) have been used to approximate trends in consumption over time (for example Grünberger, 2014 and Peng et al, 2015). Two main data sources are used for longitudinal analysis of diets: food balance sheets on food supply (FBS) and household budget surveys on food purchased (HBS)
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