Food consumption away from home had divergent impacts on diet nutrition quality across urban and rural China

Huaqing Wu, Zhao Zhang (), Jialu Xu (), Jie Song, Jichong Han, Jing Zhang, Qinghang Mei, Fei Cheng, Huimin Zhuang and Shaokun Li
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Huaqing Wu: Beijing Normal University
Zhao Zhang: Beijing Normal University
Jialu Xu: Beijing Normal University
Jie Song: Beijing Normal University
Jichong Han: Beijing Normal University
Jing Zhang: Beijing Normal University
Qinghang Mei: Beijing Normal University
Fei Cheng: Beijing Normal University
Huimin Zhuang: Beijing Normal University
Shaokun Li: Beijing Normal University

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, 2025, vol. 17, issue 1, No 4, 56 pages

Abstract: Abstract China's rapid economic growth has led to a significant increase in the number of people who are eating away from home. However, some studies show that increased meat consumption poses a health burden while others show dietary diversity promoted by away from home enhances health. As a result, the effects of away from home on dietary nutritional quality remain inconclusive. Moreover, estimates of total food consumption are underestimated without considering away from home. Herein, we constructed away from home models (R2 = 0.59) to assess its impacts on the quantity and quality of food consumption. By 2020, away from home accounted for 18% (233.37 g) of total consumption in urban areas and 8% (81.80 g) in rural areas. Although, at the national scale, away from home consumption of meat, poultry, and aquatic products led to decreased dietary nutritional quality in urban areas from 2000 to 2020 and in rural areas since 2015, by 2020, three urban provinces and 12 rural provinces still showed improvements in dietary nutritional quality from such consumption. Additionally, overall dietary nutritional quality of away from home impact in urban areas improved from 2000 to 2015 but decreased in 2020, whereas rural areas saw consistent improvement across all years, suggesting the divergent impacts on diet nutrition quality across urban and rural China. Our findings underscore the urgency and necessity of extensively strengthening national nutritional education and developing specific nutrition-health policies tailored to economic conditions. This study also provides critical data for accurate food consumption and life cycle evaluations, promoting sustainability in the food system. Graphical abstract

Keywords: Food consumption; Eating away from home; Nutritional quality; Dietary transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s12571-024-01514-4

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