Food Sources and Expenditures for Seafood in the United States.

David C Love,Elizabeth M Nussbaumer,Andrew L Thorne-Lyman,Ruth Young,Zach Conrad,Jamie Harding,Roni Neff,Frank Asche

doi:10.3390/nu12061810

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore United States (U.S.) seafood consumption patterns, food sourcing, expenditures, and geography of consumption. We analyzed seafood intake and food sourcing using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles 2007–2008 to 2015–2016 for US adults ≥19 years old (n = 26,743 total respondents; n = 4957 respondents consumed seafood in the past 24 h). Seafood expenditures were extrapolated by combining NHANES with three other public datasets. U.S. adults consumed 63% of seafood (by weight) at home. The top sources of seafood (by weight) were food retail (56%), restaurants (31%), and caught by the respondent or someone they know (5%). Sixty-five percent of consumer expenditures for seafood were at restaurants and other “away from home” sources while 35% were at retail and other “at home” sources. Slightly less than half of overall U.S. food expenditures are “away from home,” which is much lower than for seafood, suggesting that consumers have very different spending habits for seafood than for an aggregate of all foods.

Highlights

United States (U.S.) consumers receive the majority of their protein from terrestrial animals [1], seafood consumption has been linked with numerous health benefits, including reduced risk of coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, and cardiac death [2,3]
What We Eat In America (WWEIA), which is administered by the U.S Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) [18]
We found that on average 39% of total seafood intake by weight was purchased at restaurants and other food service venues, and that the rate could be as high as 50% to 60% for some species such as crab, catfish, cod, and shrimp

Summary

Introduction

United States (U.S.) consumers receive the majority of their protein from terrestrial animals [1], seafood consumption has been linked with numerous health benefits, including reduced risk of coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, and cardiac death [2,3]. Federal dietary guidelines recommend that adults consume at least 227 g/week (8 oz/week) of seafood based on a 2000 kcal diet (for reference, one seafood serving is 85 g or 3 oz, cooked wt) [4]. 10% to 20% of U.S consumers meet the federal Dietary Guidelines [5]. The current U.S seafood supply provides 140 g/week (4.9 oz/week) per person, a level that has remained relatively constant for three decades [6,7]. Market growth in terms of amount consumed is Nutrients 2020, 12, 1810; doi:10.3390/nu12061810 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients. Analyses of trade data indicate that the five top species consumed by Americans are shrimp, salmon, canned tuna, catfish/pangasius, and tilapia, which jointly comprise 70–80% of the U.S seafood supply [6]. Focus has shifted from wild capture to farm-raised products, and there is an increasing reliance on imports as U.S production has been stable since the mid-19800 s [6]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion