Evolution of the Polish Food Security and Its Residents at the Beginning of the 21^st Century

The aim of the study was to determine the status and direction of changes in food security of Poland and its inhabitants at the beginning of the twenty-first century, in particular: to characterise the level of consumption of basic food products in 2000-2014 and the level of food self-sufficiency of selected products; to assess the conditions for durability and reliability of food supplies; to characterise the conditions of economic availability of food and the diversity of the Polish inhabitants in this regard; to determine the level of consumption of energy, its structure and basic nutrients for different socio-economic groups of households for 2001-2003 and 2012-2014. To ensure food security of the state, four conditions must be met simultaneously: (1) physical availability of food, which means that the domestic food economy ensures consumption of at least the minimum physiological requirement, while import of food provides more than this minimum requirement; (2) durability and reliability of food supplies; (3) economic availability of food, which is equivalent to the fact that the economically weakest households and their members have access to the necessary food (due to various forms of food aid); (4) health suitability of a single food product and consumed food ration (the necessary energy level, the proper ratio of nutrients, the lack of an inadmissible degree of pollution)