Changing food preferences and choices – A framework for analyzing households food purchases over time

Scientific interest in food consumption has grown significantly in recent decades due to its profound implications for individuals’ and societies’ health and wellbeing and implications for domestic and global systems sustainability. Food purchases can be directly and indirectly related to household and consumer characteristics. While food purchase habits may be dynamic and influenced by changing circumstances over the years, most related research presents a snapshot of the studied issues within a single year or period or focus on a specific social group or food commodity. This paper introduces and illustrates a framework for analyzing household food purchasing clusters over a period of time. It uses data from over 120,000 households in Israel to analyze household food purchases over two decades. The analysis segments the population into clusters and accounts for their food purchases through an extensive bottom-up approach. It identifies several major clusters, including small and large families and young and elderly households, each representing a unique range of food purchase patterns and a different share of the overall society. It analyses different levels of consumption, from broad categories to specific products, and examines the relationships between food purchases and household characteristics. Examining specific food categories and commodities illustrates a complex trend over the research period, including rising demand for beef, poultry, and soft drinks, steady patterns of consumption of frozen and canned vegetables and oils, and a clear decline in demand for dairy, grain, and sugar products.