Food away from home and the reversal of the calorie intake decline in India
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Food away from home and the reversal of the calorie intake decline in India Deepthi E. Kolady 1
&
Shivendra Kumar Srivastava 2 & David Just 3 & Jaspal Singh 4
Received: 19 February 2020 / Accepted: 14 September 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract India experienced a consumption puzzle since the 1970s, whereby households’ calorie intakes declined over time, despite significant economic growth. This declining trend in calorie intake (consumption puzzle) was reversed for the first time in 2011–12. This is the first empirical study that investigates the relationship between refinements in data collection on food away from home (FAFH) and the trend reversal in per capita calorie intake decline in India. Findings from the study showed that the declining trend in calorie intake in India has been partly due to measurement issues and that correcting for these issues through refinements in data collection for FAFH in 2011–12 had a positive effect on the reversal of the calorie intake decline. India uses per capita calorie intake estimated using data from HCES to define the official poverty line, a benchmark used in designing many social welfare programs. Incorrect estimates of calorie intake will have negative implications on the effectiveness of welfare programs aimed at reducing food insecurity. Findings from this study provide insights for further improvement in data collection regarding household-level consumption expenditures. The study has implications not only for India but also for other countries that use household-level consumption data to understand diets and to design food and nutrition programs. Keywords Calorie consumption puzzle . Calorie intake . Food insecurity . Household consumption expenditure
1 Introduction
* Deepthi E. Kolady [email protected] Shivendra Kumar Srivastava [email protected] David Just [email protected] Jaspal Singh [email protected] 1
Ness School of Management and Economics, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57006, USA
2
Scientist (Agricultural Economics) ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, P.B. No. 11305, Dev Prakash Shastri (DPS) Marg, Pusa, New Delhi 110 012, India
3
Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
4
NITI Aayog, Government of India, New Delhi 110001, India
There is substantive evidence supporting a positive relationship between income growth, poverty reduction, and food consumption expenditure (Deaton and Drèze 2002; Patnaik 2010). Food consumption expressed in kilocalories per capita per day is used to measure and evaluate the changes in global, regional, and national food security (WHO 2019). However, India faced a paradoxical trend in average calorie intake since the 1970s; a decline in per capita calorie consumption, even when the economy was growing, and per capita real incomes were rising (Basu and Basole 2012). The decline in per capita calorie consumption over time, despite the increase in real consumption expenditures, is referr
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