Canada Food Expenditure Survey 1996

The Food Expenditure Survey (FES) is a periodic survey designed to supplement the Survey of Household Spending (SHS) with more detailed information concerning expenditures on food commodities. In 1996, the survey collected information from private households among both urban and rural areas among all ten provinces of Canada, as well as the cities of Whitehorse and Yellowknife– although the data for these cities were excluded from the public use files. The sample, selected from the Labour Force Survey sampling frame, was drawn for the whole year and then divided into monthly subsamples over the 1996 calendar year. FES data was collected using both an interview questionnaire and two weekly diaries. Respondents were asked to provide details of daily food purchases in the diaries, including type of packaging, number of units purchased, weight or volume per unit, and total cost.