To describe out-of-home consumption according to the purpose and extent of industrial processing and also evaluate the association between eating out and ultra-processed food consumption, taking account of variance within and between individuals.

Cross-sectional study.

Brazil.

The study was based on the Individual Food Intake of the Brazilian Household Budget Survey, carried out with 34 003 individuals aged 10 years or more, between May 2008 and May 2009. All food items were classified according to food processing level. The habit of eating out was evaluated through the frequency of days each individual reported eating out, described according to sociodemographic characteristics. The contribution of food energy per group and subgroup was estimated according to the frequency of eating out. In addition, multilevel modelling was employed to evaluate the association between eating out and ultra-processed food consumption.

In Brazil, culinary preparations accounted for most of the energy eaten out. However, it was possible to observe a higher contribution of ultra-processed foods, especially sugary beverages and ready-to-eat meals, as the frequency of out-of-home consumption increased. Compared with food consumption exclusively at home, eating out increased the consumption of ultra-processed foods by 0·41 percentage points within and between individuals.

In Brazil, the same individual and different individuals had greater consumption of ultra-processed foods when they ate out of home compared with when they ate at home. So, it is necessary to implement public policies which discourage the out-of-home consumption of ultra-processed foods and that provide affordable and accessible less-processed food options.

To summarise the methods of data collection on foods eaten outside the home in the National Food Survey (NFS) and the new (2001) Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS).

The treatment of foods eaten outside the home in the NFS was reviewed as part of a merger process with the UK household budget Family Expenditure Survey (FES). Problem issues were identified and the way these problems are being dealt with in the EFS is indicated.

United Kingdom.

Pilot EFS results indicate improved coverage of foods eaten outside the home, in a comparable period to the NFS.

The new EFS, which represents a merger of the NFS and the FES at the level of data collection and validation, is likely to preserve the qualities of the previous surveys and represents an improvement over them.

Household budget surveys (HBSs) have been used to assess nutritional information for epidemiological purposes. The agreement between this information and other comparable data needs to be examined. The aim of this project was to compare household food expenditure data between two British HBSs: the National Food Survey (NFS) and the Family Expenditure Survey (FES).

Household food expenditure data were compared between the NFS and the FES for the years from 1982 to 1993. Differences in expenditure were assessed by year, by household composition, by income group and by region; for trends across time for all households and for regional, household composition and income group variations.

Great Britain.

Approximately 88 000 NFS households and 85 000 FES households surveyed between 1982 and 1993 were used in this analysis.

Marked differences between the food expenditure data provided by the two surveys were observed. Furthermore, differences in time trends were substantial, which can lead to different conclusions regarding changes in consumption patterns.

There is no obvious reason for the differences in household food expenditure between the NFS and the FES. Methodological differences between the two surveys cannot provide a full explanation for these discrepancies. The NFS and FES are now merged into a single survey (the Expenditure and Food Survey). If HBSs are to be used for epidemiological purposes their validity needs to be established.