RESEARCH Review Capturing the Spectrum of Household Food and Beverage Purchasing Behavior: A Review SIMONE A. FRENCH, PhD; SCOTT T. SHIMOTSU, MPH; MELANIE WALL, PhD; ANNE FARICY GERLACH, MPH ABSTRACT The household setting may be the most important level at which to understand the food choices of individuals and how healthful food choices can be promoted. However, there are few available measures of the food purchase behaviors of households and little consensus on the best way to measure it. This review explores the currently available measures of household food purchasing behav- ior. Three main measures are described, evaluated, and compared: home food inventories, food and beverage pur- chase records and receipts, and Universal Product Code bar code scanning. The development of coding, aggrega- tion, and analytical methods for these measures of house- hold food purchasing behavior is described. Currently, annotated receipts and records are the most comprehen- sive, detailed measure of household food purchasing be- havior, and are feasible for population-based samples. Universal Product Code scanning is not recommended due to its cost and complexity. Research directions to improve household food purchasing behavior measures are discussed. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008;108:2051-2058. A large proportion of individual daily food choice oc- curs in household food environments (1,2), and can include foods purchased at grocery stores, super- markets, restaurants, fast-food places, coffee shops, con- venience stores, and department stores. Household food purchasing behavior is important to measure because it contributes to understanding potential important influ- ences on individual energy intake and dietary quality, and possibly excess weight gain and obesity (3-6). House- hold food purchasing behavior is an intermediate level of influence between the neighborhood retail food environ- ment and individual dietary intake. It may exert direct effects on individual intake through food exposure and availability (3-8), and indirect effects through its role as a mediator of the neighborhood retail food environment (4-8). Community, household, and individual level influ- ences and interventions can be better understood if household food purchasing behavior can be described and measured with fidelity. To reflect this broader conceptualization, we use the term “household food purchasing behavior.” Household food purchasing behavior refers to all foods and beverages purchased by a household from all sources, including grocery stores, restaurants, convenience stores, coffee shops, and department stores. One reason for this more inclusive definition of household food purchasing behav- ior is the household shift from purchasing foods from grocery stores and eating home-prepared meals to pur- chasing prepared foods from full-service and fast-food restaurants, coffee shops, and other stores. This has been a major trend in the United States during the past 2 decades (1,2,9,10). In 2000, almost half of US household food dollars were spent at eating out food sources (11). It is estimated that by 2010, 53% of US household food dollars will be spent at eating out food sources (11). About 57% of US adults eat away from home on any given day (9). Food eaten away from home comprises about 25% or more of daily energy intake (9). Household food environments have been measured in previous research using home food inventories, food pur- chase records, grocery store receipts, and bar code scan- ners (12-24). Despite the important role that eating out plays in individual-level food choices and dietary quality, no household-level measure is available to determine the proportion of home food purchases or to gather informa- tion about the types of foods and beverages purchased from eating-out sources (1,2,25). Quantitative informa- tion about the amounts of food and beverages purchased has not been captured by current home food inventories or receipt measures. Purchasing patterns (ie, food sources and types) and variability over time for purchases of key food categories have not been captured with previous measures. These are important dimensions to measure so that the patterns and sources of food and beverage pur- chasing that relate to individual dietary quality and body mass index can be identified, quantified, and measured reliably and validly. Thus, although household food pur- chasing behavior is a key concept to understand individ- ual food choices, very little research has been done to develop reliable and valid measures of household food purchasing behavior. S. A. French is a professor, S. T. Shimotsu is a research assistant, and A. F. Gerlach is a senior coordinator, Di- vision of Epidemiology and Community Health, and M. Wall is an associate professor, Department of Biostatis- tics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Address correspondence to: Simone A. French, PhD, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, Uni- versity of Minnesota, 1300 S Second St, Suite 300, Min- neapolis, MN 55454. E-mail: frenc001@umn.edu Manuscript accepted: June 23, 2008. Copyright © 2008 by the American Dietetic Association. 0002-8223/08/10812-0007$34.00/0 doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2008.09.001 © 2008 by the American Dietetic Association Journal of the AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSOCIATION 2051