14 Nov, 200_ - Ongoing studies show that food consumption away from home is more significant than originally anticipated.
Furthermore, both meat and vegetable consumption increases significantly as incomes rise. In addition, purchase of products including meats and dairy products in supermarkets has increased dramatically in recent years, as have ready-to-eat home meal replacements.
A. Food Away from Home in Significant Expenditures on food away from home in our data were 163 RMB/person in July 2007, nearly twice the level estimated by the NBS for the subset of households surveyed by CAS and WSU (92 RMB/person). After including food consumed away from home but not paid for by the household, we estimate total food away from home consumption to be 225 RMB/person, 2-1/2 times the NBS figure.
Figure 1 shows these differences for the month of July, and extrapolates over the rest of the year assuming the same percentage differences. According to our preliminary estimates, over 50 percent of household meat consumption and nearly 30 percent of household vegetable consumption occurs away from home, and these proportions rise as
income rises (Figures 2-4). Around 40 percent of food away from home is consumed in cafeterias, with another 20
percent in restaurants, about 10 percent in fast food venues, and another 10 percent at small food stands. Much of the cafeteria consumption is subsidized by employers or schools
