Consumption of food in relation to income and saturation limit of Slovak households

Abstract

Food represents everyday need and from this point of view is stable and computable demand on the consumer market. Based on the current development of households’ net money income and consumption expenditures, the aim of the paper is to point at the development of food consumption and changes in the cost of living of the population in Slovakia. Previous food consumption analyses proved that eating habits of the Slovak population comply neither with healthy lifestyle nor recommended doses, due to the low level of disposable net money income. In the analysis, linear and nonlinear functions were used in order to evaluate the development and saturation of demand for basic foods in Slovakia in the period 2008–2017. During these years, the share of expenditures on food and non-alcoholic beverages did not significantly change the consumption expenditures; they moved in intervals from 19.2% (2017) to 23.1% (2013), which is still a high share in comparison with EU countries (12.2%). The analysis provided in the paper is a suitable base for food businesses to create a product portfolio based on different net money income and saturation demand for basic foods.