Cross‐country study on food consumption patterns and rice away from home: The case of Bangladesh

• Published date: 01 May 2019
• Date: 01 May 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wfp2.12000

6

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wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/wfp2 World Food Policy. 2019;5:6–15.

© 2019 Policy Studies Organization

DOI: 10.1002/wfp2.12000

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Cross‐country study on food consumption patterns

and rice away from home: The case of Bangladesh

NazmulHassan1

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NafisMd. Irfan1

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SanjitRoy2

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NazmaShaheen1

1Institute of Nutrition and Food

Science,University of Dhaka, Dhaka,

Bangladesh

2Department of Population

Sciences,University of Dhaka, Dhaka,

Bangladesh

Correspondence

Nazmul Hassan, Institute of Nutrition

and Food Science, University of Dhaka,

Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh.

Email: nazmul.hassan1@gmail.com

Funding information

FAO‐UN Bangkok Regional Office

Abstract

As with most Asian countries, rice dominates Bangladesh in

terms of food production and consumption. However, with

sustained increase in income, persistent commendable GDP

growth, urbanization, and significant reduction in poverty,

people tend to consume more diversified food, ready to eat

food, and food away from home. The findings from this

study, based on data from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics,

lend support to this consumption propensity and indicate

that with time rice is becoming cheaper and animal and

plant foods are getting dearer and expensive. This implies

that the national agricultural policy of Bangladesh must

recast to match the future food demand of people and to

meet the increasing challenge of reversing the rising prices

of non‐staples including animal foods. Nested studies on

“rice and food away from home” and estimation of demand

elasticity and formulation of food demand equations to de-

termine dietary choices and to find nutritional implications

of movements in relative food prices and other exogenous

variables, to this effect, will have important policy implica-

tions for Bangladesh agriculture–food and health paradigm.

KEYWORDS

Bangladesh food consumption, food away from home, rice consumption