The US. Department of Agriculture has announced an upcoming survey that will explore food choices and expenditures by U.S. households. The National Household Food Purchase and Acquisition Study looks to "fill in critical gaps in existing data on the food purchases of U.S. households and be invaluable in assessing and enhancing the effectiveness of USDA's food assistance programs for low-income families," according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The survey will gather unique, detailed data not previously available to researchers. USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS), which made the selection, will use the resulting data to study how food assistance programs and other economic and demographic factors affect household food purchase decisions and health outcomes. This effort will be carried out with the support of USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.

"This study will allow us to enhance and increase the efficiency of federal nutrition assistance and education programs that serve as the nation's first line of defense against hunger and a critical safety net for the underserved Americans," said Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services at USDA.

The results of this survey will allow USDA to understand how households make their purchase choices, and what those choices mean for diet quality, and also aims to answer questions like how price and income influence food choices and the dietary quality of food purchases; how participation in food assistance programs influences food purchases; how access and retail outlet choice and location influence food purchases and the resulting dietary quality of purchases; and the influence of nutrition knowledge on food purchases.