As a result of the political upheaval and change of regime in Poland in 1989, a radical economic transformation programme was implemented. This was designed to remove state controls which had dominated all aspects of economic life for over 40 years and lay the foundations for the evolution of a market economy. It involved the simultaneous liberalization of prices and the restructuring of all aspects of the macro- and micro-economy. The food sector, given existing levels of state control and the importance of the production and consumption of food to the national economy, was among the first to receive attention. State controls of food prices and subsidies were removed and a long process by which state-owned monopoly suppliers were broken-up was established, in an attempt to establish a properly functioning market for food. As a result of price liberalization and the removal of subsidies, food prices soared and, combined with restrictions on increases in money wages, real incomes declined. In addition, there was a realignment of relative food prices. Despite initial attempts at maintaining existing consumption patterns, the demand for most food products declined. Consequently, there were reductions in intakes of food energy and the majority of nutrients. In the longer term, producers and consumers will adapt to their new economic environment and as properly functioning markets become established and real incomes grow, intakes of food will recover and patterns of consumption are likely to converged upon those observed in much of the rest of Northern Europe.