Until recently, the food demand theory has been considered a particular case
of general demand theory. Neo-classical economic theory was applied to all
consumption goods on a non-differentiated basis, including food commodities.
This approach that highlights the role of incomes and prices in explaining food
behaviour continues to be largely used by economists (Senauer, 1997), even
though the consumer’s food behaviour in Western society has experienced a
fundamental change. Furthermore, it is applied to the developing countries in order
to explain the evolution of food consumption, although the economic and social
context is fundamentally different here. Neo-classical theory considers foodstuff
as a ‘commodity’, although in the developing and less-developed countries selfconsumption
represents an important part of food consumption (sometimes more
than 50 per cent), (Colman and Trevor, 2000). In fact, a dichotomy can be found
between food behaviour in the developed and less-developed countries