Gestor bibliográfico Crisis y Salud

In this briefing note, we document how the food purchases of households in the UK have changed over the recent period of recession and food price rises. We follow the same households over time, which allows us to control for fixed differences in households’ food purchasing behaviour. We show that, on average, real food expenditure (i.e. nominal expenditure on food divided by the food component of the consumer price index) declined and that households bought fewer calories and have switched to cheaper calories. This has coincided with a switch towards more calorie-dense types of food and substitution to more calorific food products within food types.