DEMAND FOR HEALTHY FOOD IN THE UNITED STATES

This study investigates the demand for selected healthy food groups in the United States. The original linear approximate almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS) is modified by the use of a Laspeyres index and a normalization in order to compute demand elasticities identically to the AIDS model. The results of this study suggest that poultry is the most price elastic while cereals are the least price elastic. Fresh fruits and fresh vegetables are more price elastic than processed fruits and processed vegetables. Increasing income would induce the increases in the consumption of fresh vegetables and fruits more than that of cereals and bakery products, while increasing health risk concerns would induce the decreases in the consumption of bakery products and poultry but the increases in the consumption of fresh vegetables and cereals. The demographic variables exhibit certain effects on the demand for some healthy food groups and seasonal fluctuations statistically exist in the consumption of all food groups under study.