Food Purchase Behaviour of Different Consumer Groups in Belgium

Abstract

Research based on household panel data collected from Gesellschaft für Konsum und Absatzforschung (GfK) in Belgium in 2001 focuses on the three objectives. First, to find out whether the amount of food purchased is different throughout income related social groups. Second, to analyse the relationship between budget share in food expenditure and income. Third, to investigate the impact of socioeconomic variables on food purchase and expenditure between income groups. The basic survey data are adapted specifically for the current research. Further, a three-step methodology is presented. The first step relates to the descriptive analysis of the quantity of food purchased and expenditure. In the second step, regression analyses between total food purchase and food expenditure, and the socioeconomic variables are calculated. As a third, a significant relation between income group and the other socioeconomic variables is tested. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in purchase of various food products (except fish) between the three income groups of households in Belgium. As regard to expenditure on food, the poorer people spend significantly less money on food in general, and specifically less on fish, dairy products and vegetables.