Knowledge Bank

Share of personal consumption expenditures spent on food by U.S. consumers and per capita consumption of aggregate pounds of food have declined during the twentieth century. These trends, among others, have underscored the pessimistic outlook for domestic food consumption. However, development of low calorie foods may change this outlook. The reason is that per capita daily caloric consumption has changed little since 1910. Should this trend continue, lower calorie foods would likely translate into increased per capita consumption. A reduction in the excess of domestic production over domestic consumption would result, as would the need for export expansion programs.