This page provides the following information:
Overview
The Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database (QFAHPD) provides food price data to support research on the economic determinants of diet quality and health outcomes. The QFAHPD contains regional and market-level quarterly prices across all 48 contiguous States for:
- 52 separate food groups for 1999 through 2006
- 30 market groups for 1999 through 2001, and
- 35 market groups for 2002 to 2006
The food categories were created to correspond with the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and to capture price premiums for convenience and processing. Prices are presented in dollars per 100 grams of food as purchased by consumers. See Methodology Behind the Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database.
Data
The QFAHPD database was constructed from household food-at-home purchase data from the 1999-2006 Nielsen Homescan panels. The Homescan data contain information on household-level purchases of both Universal Product Code (UPC) foods and random-weight (non-UPC items) foods. ERS researchers aggregated these food purchases to estimate household-level quarterly prices for 52 food groups. The household-level prices were then aggregated to estimate quarterly market-level prices.
A codebook is available for researchers and others to analyze the data and conduct research. Codes are also provided in the first tab of each Excel workbook. Download the data by clicking on the spreadsheet for the specific food group:
 Fruits and Vegetables—This spreadsheet contains data on average retail prices for 15 fruit and vegetable categories from 1999-2006
Grains and Dairy—This spreadsheet contains data on average retail prices for 12 dairy and grain categories from 1999-2006
Meats, Nuts, and Eggs—This spreadsheet contains data on average retail prices for 10 meat, nuts, and egg categories from 1999-2006
Fats, Beverages, and Prepared Foods—This spreadsheet contains data on average retail prices for 15 categories from 1999-2006
Related Resources
Methodology Behind the Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database—provides an in-depth discussion of how the QFAHPD database was constructed, along with basic findings about food price variation across geographic areas and price differentials within food groups between markets.
On the Accuracy of Nielsen Homescan Data—evaluates data on food purchases by matching purchase records from 2004 Homescan data with data from a large grocery retailer.
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