Household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES) are multipurpose surveys that are routinely
conducted to collect data on household food consumption and availability in more than 120 countries.
HCES are increasingly being used to calculate proxy estimates of food consumption, nutrient intakes, and
nutrition status, often at the individual level. Rarely, however, do they collect information on meal
participation, despite growing evidence that it is an increasingly important and variable component of the
quantity of food consumed or available in a household. This paper explores the significance of adjusting
for meal participation in making inferences about apparent food consumption and nutrient intakes. It
focuses on two distinct sets of additional information requirements for enhancing the reliability and
precision of measures of food consumption: (1) individual household members’ and household guests’
meal-eating behaviors, and (2) the number and apparent nutritional significance of meals. While the most
comprehensive and precise accounting of intakes of individual food consumption and nutrients requires
both types of information, the magnitude of the changes required in HCES questionnaires to capture them
is likely to be prohibitive. Consequently, for many HCES, a “second best” approach may be the most
effective method, at least in the short term. The paper empirically explores some of the relatively few
HCES that currently attempt to capture some of these information requirements. In addition, it assesses
their value-added to prioritize the global agenda for strengthening HCES measurement of food
consumption in support of more evidence-based nutrition policy making.