What will the UNC team do?

First as background, the UNC team (called the UNC Food Research Program or UNCFRP) will study continuously the sources of calories and the shifts in eating patterns of US children. This will include understanding shifts in the number of eating events, location of food purchases and consumption, portion sizes, and types of foods consumed. One key issue will be to understand changes in the quality of the diet which means a focus on junk foods or what some term foods of minimal nutritional value.

Second, the UNCFRP will study what is the best baseline period for this evaluation. The evaluation itself will monitor product reformulation, new product introduction, and market shares and sales as well as individual dietary intake. A major first step will be to understand what is the ideal baseline prior to the recession and earlier price increases in foods to use for this evaluation.

Third, the UNCFRP will follow not only changes in market shares and sales and purchases (volume and kcal amounts) but also related changes in energy intake of children ages 2-18.