Information about the incidence of hunger is of considerable interest and potential value for policy and program design. Food insecurity is a household-level economic and social condition of limited access to food, while hunger is an individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity. In 2006, USDA introduced the new description 'very low food security' to replace 'food insecurity with hunger,'-recognizing more explicitly that, although hunger is related to food insecurity, hunger is a different phenomenon. 'Hunger' in that description referred to 'the uneasy or painful sensation caused by lack of food.' Prior to 2006, USDA described households with very low food security as 'food insecure with hunger' and characterized them as households in which one or more people were hungry at times during the year because they could not afford enough food. USDA does not have a measure of hunger or the number of hungry people.

Andersen, ed., 'Core Indicators of Nutritional State for Difficult to Sample Populations,' The Journal of Nutrition 120:1557S-1600S, 1990.) Does USDA Measure Hunger? (Definitions are from the Life Sciences Research Office, S.A.

Assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies).įood insecurity is the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.

The ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods.

What Is Food Security?įood security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. For detailed technical information on measurement methods, questionnaires, and calculating food security scales, see Food Security in the U.S.: Survey Tools. This page provides an overview of how household food security and food insecurity are measured.

How Many Households are Interviewed in the National Food Security Surveys?.

Survey Questions used by USDA to Assess Household Food Security.

How are Food Security and Insecurity Measured?.

This page provides the following information:

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