What are the Limitations of the U.S. Food Supply Data?
A. The food supply is usually a residual that makes the supply-utilization commodity table balance. The disappearance method of calculation relegates to the food supply all residual uses for which data are not available, such as miscellaneous nonfood uses, stock changes at retail and consumer levels, and sampling and measurement errors in the estimation of other components of the balance sheet. For example, an increasing proportion of the total turkey supply (especially backs, necks and giblets) goes into pet foods. But it is currently included in food disappearance. Thus, this report probably over states turkey consumption. Food disappearance is often used as a proxy to estimate human consumption. Used in this manner, the food supply usually provides an upper bound on the amount of food available for consumption. Food disappearance estimates can overstate actual consumption because they include spoilage and waste accumulated through the marking system and in the home. The food disappe
