April 7, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Consumers spend more on food away from home

The trend towards spending more of the consumer dollar on food away from home continued in 1998.

Percent of total expenditures spent on food at home and away from home, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1995-98
[Chart data—TXT]

The percentage of consumers’ expenditures that went to food away from home rose from 5.5 percent in 1997 to 5.7 percent in 1998. In contrast the share of expenditures devoted to food at home fell from 8.3 percent in 1997 to 7.8 percent in 1998.

Expenditures on food away from home have been steadily climbing as a share of total expenditures in recent years while the share going to food at home has consistently dropped. In 1995, the food-away-from-home share was nearly half a percentage point lower than in 1998, and the food-at-home share was almost a percentage point higher than in 1998.

These data come from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. Find out more in "Consumer Expenditures in 1998," BLS Report 940.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED