Contemporary Food Trends in the Homogenization of Food Expenditure in Spain and UK

Abstract

Food consumption has shown traits of convergence in the early stages of
post-industrial development in modern societies. In this work we consider
the current situation in relation to two fundamental aspects of dietary change:
whether the evolution of food expenditure tends towards homogenization
and whether or not the factors associated with food consumption are the
same in different environments. For this reason we have chosen two countries
that account for the diversity of factors that explain this change: UK and
Spain. Comparative analysis of food expenditure in the UK and Spain has
been carried out on the basis of household budget surveys and by applying
multivariate analysis techniques. The results point to a progressive homogenization
of expenditure, although there remains a signifi cant heterogeneity or
internal inequality in food consumption among the population due to economic,
social and cultural factors, with differences between countries.