Food consumption outside the home in Argentina. Relevance of demographic composition and typology of households

Abstract

The economic growth experienced by Argentina in the last years influenced consumption patterns, including food-away-from-home. Even though increased purchasing power was pointed as a determinant factor, other household characteristics and their interaction have been assumed relevant but not sufficiently studied. To fill the gap, the objective of this study is know the relationship between size, demographic composition and type of household in food-away-from-home-consumption for the 2004/05 period, using National Household survey data. The analysis is conducted for Santa Fe province, Argentina, one of the country´s most economically and demographically important. A Logit model is used for their forecasts and each variable marginal effects on the purchasing probabilities. The results confirm the size significance, in terms of number of members; the composition significance controlling by age groups and gender; and the type of households. There also appears differences in consumption patterns according to each analysed household characteristic. The conclusions stress the importance of taking into account these results for designing specific policies and programs, such as health prevention, obesity control and children nutrition.