Trends in spending on eating away from home in Brazil, 2002-2003 to 2008-2009

The study aims to describe trends in food consumption away from home in Brazil from 2002-2003 to 2008-2009 and to analyze the influence of income on this behavior. The authors used data collected by the Household Budget Surveys conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2002-2003 and 2008-2009. The information analyzed in this study involves records of food and beverage purchases for consumption away from home. Trends in eating away from home were estimated for the total population and according to demographic and economic strata. The association between the share of food consumed away from home and income was studied using regression models to estimate income elasticity coefficients. The share of eating away from home increased 25% during the period, reaching 28% of total spending on food. Each 10% increase in mean per capita income leads to a 3.5% increase in the share of food consumed away from home. This suggests that income growth will result in future increases in the share of eating away from home.