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According to the latest ERS (Economic Research Service) data available, American consumers have spent $1,459 billion on food in 2014 (https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-expenditures/). Various studies have shown that most American consumers are too tired or unwilling to spend time or effort on preparing meal every day or in the evenings. Not surprisingly, consumer spending on food-away-from-home (FAFH) has reached almost $728 billion or 49.9 percent of total expenditure on food in 2014. Most of this FAFH expenditures went to restaurants, both full-service and fast food.
At the household level, American consumers spent slightly over $7,000 on average on food during 2016, of which 56% was spent on FAH and the rest at FAFH (BLS, 2017). American consumers are also looking to save time on household chores like shopping, cooking, and cleaning (Harris and Spitsova, 2007). The rise of home delivery services of customized meal ingredients, such as Blue Apron (https://www.blueapron.com/), or precooked meal delivery services like Freshly (https://www.freshly.com/) or Factor 75 (https://www.factor75.com/how-it-works) is an indication of where and how far food consumption (and marketing) have evolved in the United States.
Food purchasing decisions by American consumers impact the U.S. economy in general, and the entire U.S. food marketing system, from farmers to the neighborhood retailers, in particular. Public policies related to health and nutrition (because food choices impact health) and poverty alleviation (such as food stamps or the SNAP program) also rely on information about food purchasing decisions by American consumers. Therefore, understanding questions that relate to our food consumption behavior are essential from both an economics and a public policy perspective. So, it is important that we ask questions, such as, (1) What do Americans eat at home? (2) What do they eat when they eat out? (3) Where did they buy their food? (4) Is there a difference between different groups of Americans, such as between Whites and African-Americans, or between Whites and Asians, when it comes to what they eat at home and away from home? and (5) What factors influence consumers' food purchases and consumptions? These and many similar questions, including those related to consumers' food choices that impact their health and nutrition, and their use of the food assistance programs (such as SNAP which is typically used to define poverty in America), are in the minds of agri-food economists like myself around the country.
To examine these questions, we will be relying on the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) data which collected information on foods purchased by American households, and the prices and nutrient characteristics of those foods. The FoodAPS data contains data on factors expected to affect food acquisition decisions, such as household size and composition, demographic characteristics, income, participation in Federal food assistance programs, and dietary restrictions, were also collected (ERS, 2017).
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