Food Consumption Score Overview

Lynn Brown
Chief Economist

March 2012
The Food Consumption Score (FCS) is a proxy indicator
of household food security based on the weighted
frequency (no. of days in a week) of intake of 8
different food groups.

It is measured as:

FCS= a1x1+ a2x2+ …+ a8x8 ,

Where i=food group, x=frequency, a= weight
 What does it (or doesn’t it) tell us?
• FCS captures both quality (different food groups/dietary diversity)
and quantity (food frequency) elements of food security

• Cut-off points are used to categorise households into:

- acceptable levels of consumption (>35 points)
- borderline levels (<21-<35)
- poor levels (0<21)

• Positive correlation proven with measures of caloric intake and the

food poverty line

• Disaggregated data on dietary patterns used for designing,

targeting, monitoring and evaluating programmes over time
Limitations:

•Doesn’t tell us the ‘food gap’ i.e. how much food is lacking in
the diet as it doesn’t track quantities

•Doesn’t account for individual nutritional requirements or

seasonal variations

•Needs to be adapted to local contexts

•Often underestimates levels of food insecurity when compared

against other food security indicators
Future Direction: Useful but . .
• Examination of how best to recalculate cut-off points

• Analysis of what the best gold standard is – challenge of

validating against non-gold standard benchmarks

• Opportunity with upcoming validation studies e.g. using LSMS

data with FCS module in: Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Egypt,
Nigeria, Mali

• Can be used in conjunction with other indicators depending

on objectives
 Thank you for your attention.

World Food Programme

Via C.G. Viola, 68/70 - 00148 Rome, Italy
www.wfp.org
Email: lynn.brown@wfp.org