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Written question asked by Chris Ruane (Labour) on Monday, 23 January 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 25 January 2012. It was answered by James Paice (Conservative) on Wednesday, 1 February 2012 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Fruit

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what information her Department holds on how many portions of (a) fresh fruit and (b) vegetables the average person in each socio-economic grouping consumes per day.
Answer

DEFRA holds information on food purchases by socio-economic groupings. The following table is calculated from fruit and vegetable purchases for household supplies. It excludes potatoes and excludes fruit and vegetables contained in composite products and eaten out. A portion size is taken to be 80 grams based on purchase weight. It is a broad approximation to consumption of five a day portions.

National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS SEC), 2010
Average number of portions per person per day
Fresh fruit Processed fruit and fruit products (including fruit juice) Fresh vegetables Processed vegetables
Employers in large organisations, higher managerial and professional occupations 1.5 0.9 1.5 0.6
Employers in small organisations, own account workers 1.5 0.7 1.5 0.6
Higher professional occupations 1.8 0.9 1.7 0.6
Intermediate occupations 1.1 0.7 1.2 0.7
Lower professional and managerial and higher technical and supervisory occupations 1,3 0.7 1.4 ¦ 0.7
Lower supervisory and technical occupations 1.1 0.6 1.1 0.5
Never worked, long term unemployed and unclassified 0.6 0.4 0.7 0.6
Routine 0.9 0.5 1.1 0.6
Semi-routine 1.0 0.4 1.1 0.5
Source:
Living Costs and Food Survey, DEFRA/ONS

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
91992; 539 c669W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Fruit Vegetables
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk