National Food Survey

National Food Survey II

Do you eat to live or live to eat ?
Whatever the case may be, food is too important a subject to be treated lightly.

Here is some food for thought :

What do you think about Indians' eating habits? They must be mainly vegetarian, right?

Well, NFS I says that Indians are predominantly non-vegetarian (74% non-veg, 22% veg and 4% egg), and even more so in the East and South.

You believe that the ads we see are a true image of the average urban household.

You'd be surprised to know that only 12% of households have a raised cooking platform, a refrigerator and a dining table.

Just think of bread. What is the next food you can think of - butter,right?

But did you know that while packaged bread is used by 74% of households, packaged butter is used only by a fourth.

These interesting facts and more were brought to the fore by NFS I, conducted by IMRB in 1991-'92.

The National Food Survey (NFS) is a specialised, comprehensive study on food habits and attitudes in urban India. This is the second round of NFS, NFS I having been conducted in 1991-92. NFS I provided an overview of food habits and attitudes towards food among Indian housewives. It represented 11% of the household population of the country in 1991-92, and all urban population in towns of 5 million or more individuals. A sample of 8,650 housewives in 32 towns was interviewed to represent a household population of 16.9 million. The findings of NFS I created a change in the perspective of marketers of food products in India. bread

NFS II will represent all cities with a population of 100,000 or more, thus representing over two thirds of urban India. This survey is based on a sample of 18,200 housewives across 101 cities and covers a range of 60 product categories.

NFS II carries even greater significance in view of the growing importance of the food processing sector in India. Categories like milk and oils have changed from a seller's market to a buyer's market, commodity items like rice, flour and pulses have changed to being 'branded', all the major food players of the world have aggressively entered India, and the urban consumer has changed a lot in the last 5 years. Also, the Government has extended special facilities to the food processing industry. NFS II is thus being planned to fill the information gaps that will help marketers take advantage of this scenario.

Four categories having 16 reports will be generated by NFS II. They are :

1. Habits & Attitudes Relating to Food

2. Special Focus

a) The Kitchen
b) The Working Housewife

3. Consumption Occasions

a) Breakfast Habits
b) Snack Habits
c) Desserts
d) Eating Out

4. Product Groups

a) Bakery & Breakfast products
b) Confectionery
c) Cooking Media
d) Dairy Products
e) Food Additives and Accessories
f) Health Supplements
g) Beverages
h) Snack foods
i) Staples, Vegetables, Meat

1. Habits & Attitudes Relating to Food

snacks This report contains an overview of food, cooking and purchase habits like vegetarian/non-vegetarian households, meal occasions and contents, who cooks, who does the chores, cookware and appliances owned, penetration of packaged food products. Changes in food habits or attitudes towards food between NFS I & II will be reported.

2. Special Focus

Will give a description of cooking and dining areas, cookware and dining ware, appliances owned. The report will also focus exclusively on the working wives and the difference between them and housewives.

3. Consumption Occasions

Each occasion report will describe specific eating occasions - items consumed, packaged foods used, participants at each meal, home made and bought out foods. Changes in consumption habits across NFS I and NFS II will also be reported.

4. Product Groups

Each product group report will contain information about :

a) penetration of specific products
b) usage of branded products and brand shares
c) consumption volumes for some products
d) usage and purchase practices
e) profiles of users and non users.

Coverage

The survey centres will be :

All towns of population 4 million + i.e. Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Towns with population between 1-4 million i.e. Ahmedabad, Pune, Nagpur etc.
Towns with population 0.5-1 million, e.g. Agra, Jabalpur, Allahabad etc.
Towns with population 0.1-0.5 million will be four each in all the zones of India.

Methodology

The target respondent will be the housewife and clustered random sampling will be followed for the survey. Sample sizes per state have been taken in proportion to their urban population. Housewives will be interviewed regardless of social class or income. Special quotas will be set to achieve interviews with working housewives.

Three data collection instruments have been used - food habits questionnaire (relates to basic food habits, attitudes, product penetration, profiling variables), product usage questionnaire (product & brand usage & purchase) and a menu census (diary of all foods consumed in the household for one week).

However all information will be presented by state, town, class and socio-economic classification.

For further details on the National Food Survey contact :

Mr. H. L. Cadambi
Tel : +91-80-2213186 / 2274388
Fax : +91-80-2210795