Food consumption

The world may have stopped eating Canadian beef last year as a result of the mad cow scare, but new data show Canadians continued to eat it. In fact, per capita consumption actually rose.

Each Canadian ate 14.2 kilograms (kg) of beef in 2003, up from 13.5 kg the year before, a 5.0% gain.

On May 20, 2003, most nations imposed a ban on Canadian beef products after a single breeder cow in northern Alberta tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly known as mad cow disease. As a result, both exports and domestic slaughter plunged. Even so, last year more beef disappeared within the domestic market.

Two important factors may be behind the gain in beef consumption. The Canadian public rallied around the cause of beef farmers who were devastated by the BSE outbreak. Secondly, beef prices plunged in the last half of the year.

Retail prices for ground beef and lower cuts of beef began falling in June, reaching a low in September. For example, ground beef prices tumbled an average of 24% between May and September. Retail prices for higher-valued beef cuts remained strong because of a number of factors, including high demand by Canadian consumers for the barbeque season, high food service demand and low levels of imports. The price for pork or chicken products remained stable. Lower prices for some beef helped prompt a shift from pork to beef.

At the same time, pork consumption fell from 12.1 kg per person to 10.9 kg, a 9.6% decline. In total, each Canadian consumed 27.0 kg of red meat, down marginally from 27.2 kg in 2002, which was the fourth consecutive annual decline.

Consumption of poultry, meanwhile, held steady at 13.6 kg, unchanged from 2002. In the past 10 years, it has made major gains, increasing 21%. Last year, chicken remained the poultry of choice, at 10.8 kg per person.

Despite the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets, Canadians are still demanding grain-based products such as pasta, bakery products and cereal-based snacks. Though total cereal consumption fell slightly to 63.9 kg per Canadian in 2003, it remained well above the 55.5 kg a decade earlier. Products made with wheat flour accounted for the majority.

Rice consumption continued to make inroads as Canadians ate 5.7 kg per person in 2003, up from 5.6 kg the previous year and nearly 1.3 kg over a decade earlier.

Milk consumption slumped for the third consecutive year, as each Canadian drank 63.1 litres of milk in 2003, down from 66.5 litres 10 years ago. Consumption of 1% milk, which hit the market place only in 1990, has surpassed standard (3.25%) milk. Each Canadian consumed 9.9 litres of standard milk last year, compared with 12.9 litres of 1%.

However, Canadians have not abandoned higher-fat products entirely. Table cream continues to show a surge in popularity, as consumption in 2003 reached 1.8 litres per person, up more than 1 litre per person from a decade ago. The growth is in line with the increasing consumption of coffee, especially from food-service establishments in recent years.

New food consumption data adjusts for retail, household, cooking and plate loss.

Available on CANSIM: tables 002-0010, 002-0011 and 002-0019.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey numbers, including related surveys, 3403, 3404, 3407, 3430 and 3475.

The 2003 issue of Food Statistics, Vol. 3, no. 1 (21-020-XIE, free) is now available online. From the Our products and services page, under Browse our Internet publications, choose Free, then Agriculture.

More detailed information can be found on the Canada Food Stats CD-ROM, (23F0001XCB, $81/$129), which will soon be available. This is an easy-to-use system that provides access to a broad spectrum of data, preformatted reports and articles on food and the food industry.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Kim Boyuk (613-951-2510; or toll-free: 1-800-465-1991; kimberley.boyuk@statcan.gc.ca), Agriculture Division.