ABSTRACT
The level of food consumption and the nutritional status of households expresses the satisfaction of a number of basic human needs. They can be used as a direct indicator of welfare and as an indirect indicator of the socioeconomic development of a country. A good understanding of the living conditions of the households can help to define economic policies for the improvement of the food and nutritional security of the population. The interest in measuring the level of food consumption and nutrition comes from the fact that precise methodologies and objective thresholds have been defined by nutritionists that allow for a clear distinction of households in difficulty. There are fewer methodological issues to be resolved with these indicators than with the definition of a poverty line based on household income. A poverty line can be drawn at calorie consumption of 80 per cent of the recommended level for an active and healthy life; extreme poverty is defined as 60 per cent of the recommended consumption (von Braun and Pandya-Lorch, 1991).
