Food Consumption Trends - Assignment Example

?Ongoing Participation with On Line Postings and Discussion Forum In the current advent of innovation and globalization with cutting-edge technology and rapid advancements in almost all spheres of life, there has been a paradigm shift in the lifestyle of mankind. In today’s fast-paced life, with countless demands on time, ease of access has been the main factor which promotes adaption of any behaviors or lifestyle. This change of lifestyle has also brought about considerable changes in our food consumption. This paper discusses the trends in the food consumption patterns of Australians over the last two decades and compares it with the consumption patterns of China. The food industry in Australia covers an extensive range of products. Australia has various land types and climatic conditions but it is mainly dry and barren. It has northern tropical areas, high rainfall regions as well as some arid and semi-arid type of weather which is normally used for food production. This diversity along with the advanced technology makes Australia a continuing supplier to international markets(DFAT, 2008). The food industry of Australia is vital to its economic growth and social well-being. It contributes to around 20 percent of Australia’s manufacturing sales and service income(DAFF, 2011). Around 98 percent of fresh food, vegetables, meat, milk and other dairy products sold in the Australian markets are produced domestically.This is quite different from Australia’s various food and beverage exporters like UK, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore which import majority of their staple goods from Australia. Australia exports more than half of its agricultural produce. Normallyits food exports exceed its food imports. In 2009-10, Australia exported $24.3 billion worth of food compared to $10.1 billion of import. Most of the food imports comprised of highly processed food like specialty branded spirits, sea food and processed vegetables and fruits which are not produced in Australia(DAFF, 2011). According to Household Expenditure Survey 2009-10, Australian households spent an average of $1236 weekly on goods and services. The major categories on which majority of household income was spent were housing costs which consumed an average of $223 per week; food and non-alcoholic beverages, with an average of $203 per week and transport, with an average of $193 per week (ABS, 2009-10). In the discussion that follows, a comparison of the trends in consumption of three main food groups viz. cereals, meat products and vegetables for two countries (Australia and China), over two 5-year periods (1996-2000 and 2001-2005) is provided. The largest proportion of calories in Australian diet comes from cereal products. This is also true for almost all countries throughout the world with cereal, rice, corn, bread and noodles being staple items. The consumption of sugar products and meat is comparatively high in Australia which leads to a specific health related issue called obesity (SA Food Consumption Report). According to the data obtained from the (Food and Agriculture Organization), during the 5 year period from 1996-2000, there was a steady decline in the consumption of cereals in the Australian population, with the supply being 90.40 kg/capita/yr in 1996 and falling to 81.80 kg/capita/yr in 2000 (FAOSTAT, 2011). During the next 5 year window (from 2001-2005), there was an initial increase in the supply and consumption of cereals from 83.50 in 2001 to 92.20 kg/capita/yr in2003, followed by a gradual decline back to 83.1 kg/capita/yr in 2005. Thus, overall, during the 10 year period from 1996-2005, the consumption of cereals decreased in Australia (FAOSTAT, 2011). A similar trend was observed in the Chinese population. Although the supply and consumption of cereals in China was higher at baseline than in Australia, i.e. 173.7kg/capita/yr in the year 1996, there was an observed decline in the supply of cereals to 165.2 kg/capita/yr in 2000 and then a further decline to 155.8 kg/capita/yr till the end of the 5 year period 2001-2005 (FAOSTAT, 2011). These findings are depicted in the figure below. Figure 1: Comparison of Cereal Supply and Consumption in Australia and China Another important food group to be considered is vegetables. An analysis of the vegetable supply and consumption of the inhabitants of China and Australia between the years 1996-2000 and 2001-2005 revealed an interesting trend. In Australia, the consumption of vegetables in the overall 10 year period was higher than that of cereals and the consumption increased steadily over the first 5 year interval, i.e. from 1996 to 2000, the vegetable consumption in Australia increased from 92.1 kg/capita/yr to 98.4 kg/capita/yr. It further increased to 105.4 kg/capita/yr in the year 22006, but then a decline was observed for a period of two years with the consumption in 2003 dropping to the same level as the year 1996 i.e. 92.1 kg/capita/yr. There was then a slight increase in the following year with a subsequent drop in supply again in the year 2005 to 99.0 kg/capita/yr of vegetables being consumed. Overall, however, the vegetable intake increased slightly over the 10 year period. These findings are depicted in the graph (Figure 2) below. On the other hand, the vegetable supply and consumption in China showed a rapid and steady rise over both 5 year periods, increasing from 165.0 kg/capita/yr to 224.5 kg/capita/yr between 1996-2000 and then from 237.9 kg/capita/yr to 270.8 kg/capita/yr between 2001-2005. It is interesting to note that the vegetable consumption in China during the year 1996 was lower than cereal consumption (165.0 kg/capita/yr compared to 173.7 kg/capita/yr) but the rise in vegetable consumption over the decade resulted in the vegetable consumption in China being considerably higher than cereal consumption in the year 2005 (270.8 kg/capita/yr compared to 155.8 kg/capita/yr), as revealed by comparing Figures 1 and 2. Figure 2: Comparison of Vegetable Supply and Consumption in Australia and China An analysis and comparison of the meat intake between China and Australia revealed interesting findings. As depicted in Figure 3 below, the meat consumption Australia is higher than that in China, which important since increased red meat intake has been found to be associated with several disease states such as hypertension and dyslipidemia. Moreover, for both countries, the meat intake was found to rise slowly but steadily over both 5 year intervals, with the meat consumption in Australia rising from 104.7kg/capita/yrto 109.5 kg/capita/yrbetween 1996-2000 and from 107.9 kg/capita/yrto 115.6 kg/capita/yrbetween 2001-2005; in China, it rose from 38.9 kg/capita/yrto 49.6 kg/capita/yrbetween 1996-2000 and from 49.5 kg/capita/yr to 54.1 kg/capita/yrbetween 2001-2005. These findings are illustrated in Figure 3 below. Figure 3: Comparison of Meat Supply and Consumption in Australia and China References ABS. (2009-10). Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results, 2009-10 . Retrieved 2011, from Australian Bureau of statistics: http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/6530.0Main%20Features22009-10?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=6530.0&issue=2009-10&num=&view= DAFF. (2011). Agriculture and food: DAFF. Retrieved 2011, from Australian Government: Department of food and agriculture: http://www.daff.gov.au/agriculture-food/food DFAT. (2008). Australian Government Department of Finance and Trade. Retrieved 2011, from dfat.gov.au: http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/foodindustry.html FAOSTAT. (2011). FAOSTAT Foodsheets. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from Food and Agriculture Organization: http://faostat.fao.org/site/368/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=368#ancor SA Food Consumption Report. (n.d.). Retrieved 2011, from SA food centre Web site: http://www.safoodcentre.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/145211/safood_consumers_report.pdf Read More