Economic factors affecting food choice Essay

The aim of this research is to find the economic factors that affect a person’s food choice for example the amount of disposable income, family size and spending patterns. This then helps us to decide a suitable dish for our chosen practical. This research helps understand the relationship between quality of diet and disposable income and how are eating patterns have changed from the past. Disposable income The amount of money left after tax and other deductions have been made is called the disposable income. The amount of money spent on food cooked at home has declined even though the disposable income has risen since the 1980s. Disposable income affects the food you eat because you tend to eat out more frequently, spend more money on premium ranges of ready prepared foods and shop at more expensive supermarkets and specialist shops if you have more disposable income. However families with less disposable income tend to spend more on convenience foods and snack foods. It takes careful budgeting and shopping around for cheaper prices to provide healthy meals for low income families. Family size and spending patterns Family size also affects how much you spend on food because declining family size and an increase in single person household has led to a change in patterns of spending on food as couples and single adult households spend more per person on food. Whereas due to larger families having young children with smaller appetites less is spent per person on food, also because less food is wasted in larger families. Larger families may also buy in bulk or shop around for cheaper prices or offers such as three for the price of two and buy one get one free. There is an increase in single person households because of an ageing population where there are more elderly people than young people in a population and due to more young, single people living alone.