February 26, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Expenditures on frozen foods, meat
change considerably over 12-year period
From 1980 to 1992, average consumer
expenditures on food at home rose little once adjusted for inflation. Weekly food-at-home
spending increased 50 percent, from $33.22 per week to $49.99 per week; the Consumer Price
Index (CPI) for food at home rose 48 percent over the same period. The share of
expenditures for various food items did change however, in part reflecting cultural
trends.
[Chart data—TXT]
Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs accounted for 34.4 percent of total
expenditures on food at home in 1980, but their expenditure share dropped to 26.4 percent
in 1992. This decrease — largely driven by beef, pork, and eggs — occurred even
though prices in the meat category did not rise as fast as for all food at home. The
change may be due in part to changing consumer tastes and attitudes toward meat and egg
consumption.
The share of expenditures going to "other food at home" increased from 24.4
percent in 1980 to 29.7 percent in 1992. When price changes are accounted for, this share
increase is the largest of any major food category. The most notable change was in
miscellaneous foods, up from 8.8 to 14.8 percent of expenditures. Miscellaneous foods
include frozen meals, which proliferated and became more popular in the 1980s.
These data are a product of the BLS Consumer
Expenditure Survey. Additional information is available from "The Changing Food-at-home Budget:
1980 and 1992 compared", Monthly Labor Review, December 1998. CPI data in this article are based on the All Urban
Consumers, U.S. City Average, 1982-84=100 series.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
.
Read more »