Assessing The Healthfulness Of Consumers’ Grocery Purchases

Using self-reported data of food purchases in US households from 1998-2006, this study examines the healthfulness of Americans’ food purchases for the home, or “food-at-home (FAH) purchases.” The study finds FAH purchases are not as healthful as they should be; on average they are too low on fruits, vegetables and unrefined grains and too high in fat, sugar, and refined grains.

Report Abstract:

“The nutritional quality of Americans’ diets has increasingly become a focus of economic research due to its effects on health outcomes. Health care and other costs associated with obesity, overweight, diabetes, and other diet-related ailments continue to swell.
This study focuses on consumers’ grocery (food-at-home) expenditures to measure the extent to which Americans are conforming to Dietary Guidelines for Americans with the foods they purchase at the supermarket.”
“Overall, consumers purchase too few fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and too many refined grains, fats, and sugars/sweets. The average Healthy Eating Index score for food-at-home purchases was only 56.4 for an average consumer, far below the maximum score of 100, which would indicate full adherence to the Dietary Guidelines. The healthfulness of purchases varies somewhat across geographic regions and markets, with consumers in the Northeast and West purchasing more healthful food than consumers in the Midwest or South. Differences across income levels and across race are small, with all subgroups falling well short of the recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines.”

Study Highlights:

• “Consumers purchase too few fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and too many refined grains, fats, and added sugars.”
• “The average 2005 Healthy Eating Index score for food-at-home purchases was 56.4, far below the maximum score of 100, which would indicate perfect adherence to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines.”
• “The healthfulness of the average consumer food shopping basket did not improve noticeably between 1998 and 2006. Households shifted from refined grains toward whole grains, but allocate less of their food budgets to fruits and vegetables and more toward processed and packaged foods.”
• “When comparing consumers across regions of the country, those in the Northeast and West typically purchase more healthful food than consumers in the Midwest or South.”
• “Higher income shoppers, on average, purchase slightly more healthful food than do lower income shoppers.”
• “In terms of differences across races, Whites and Asians typically purchase more healthful foods than Blacks and other non-Asian minorities.”
• “Market concentration, defined by the number and size of retailers within a market, has a very small negative effect on the healthfulness of consumers’ food purchases.”