Expenditure and Food Survey for Northern Ireland
The Expenditure and Food Survey
The Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS) replaced the National Food Survey (and the Family Expenditure Survey) from 1 April 2001.
The EFS is a continuous survey in which private households throughout the United Kingdom collect information on domestic food consumption and expenditure. By obtaining information simultaneously about the quantities and cost of food purchased by a random selection of households, the survey enables comparisons to be made of dietary and food expenditure patterns and of the average prices paid for food. Additionally, the EFS, for the first time in Northern Ireland, includes data on food consumed outside the home as well as for food consumed at home.
The sample in Northern Ireland consists of 1,200 addresses per year where during the course of two weeks, each of the participating households kept a diary recording details of all items of food, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks and confectionery whether brought into the home for human consumption, or eaten outside the home. All UK data is processed centrally by Defra.
The data is averaged over a three year period, giving a more robust data set than that for individual years
Expenditure and Food Consumption
The results are shown in the following categories:
