Contemporary Food Trends in the Homogenization of Food Expenditure in Spain and UK

Food consumption has shown traits of convergence in the early stages of post-industrial development in modern societies. In this work we consider the current situation in relation to two fundamental aspects of dietary change: whether the evolution of food expenditure tends towards homogenization and whether or not the factors associated with food consumption are the same in different environments. For this reason we have chosen two countries that account for the diversity of factors that explain this change: UK and Spain. Comparative analysis of food expenditure in the UK and Spain has been carried out on the basis of household budget surveys and by applying multivariate analysis techniques. The results point to a progressive homogenization of expenditure, although there remains a significant heterogeneity or internal inequality in food consumption among the population due to economic, social and cultural factors, with differences between countries.