Measuring the Food Consumption Score1

The Food Consumption Score (FCS), a tool developed by WFP, is commonly used
as a proxy indicator for access to food. 2 It is a weighted score based on dietary
diversity, food frequency and the nutritional importance of food groups consumed.
Data collection
Data is collected on the number of days in the last 7 days a household ate specific
food items. A seven day recall period is used to make the FCS as precise as possible
and reduce recall bias.
Below is an example of the questionnaire used to calculate the FCS.
Table 1: Questionnaire used to calculate FCS
How many days in the last seven days did your household eat.?
write 0 if no consumption of that food item
Food Item
Number of
Food Item
Number of
days
days
Rice
Potato (including
Sweet Potato)
Wheat / Other
Dark Green
Cereals
Vegetables Leafy
Pulses / Beans /
Other Vegetables
Nuts
Milk / Milk Products
Sugar / Honey
Meat

Fruits

Poultry

Oil

Eggs

Other Food Items

Fish & Seafood

(Fresh / Dried)
Calculating the FCS
The FCS of a household is calculated by multiplying the frequency of foods
consumed in the last seven days with the weighting of each food group. The
weighting of food groups has been determined by WFP according to the nutrition
density 3 of the food group. Table 2 shows the food group weights.
Table 2: Detail of food group weights
Food item
Rice
Wheat/ Other cereals
Potato (incl. sweet potato)
1

Food group
Cereals and tubers

Weight
2

This document is based on the guidelines issued by the World Food Programme.
WFP, Monitoring Food Security Technical Guidance Sheet 2, November 2011.
WFP, Emergency Food Security Assessment Handbook, 2nd Edition, January 2009.
2
Access to food is just one of the three pillars of food security. Other pillars include, food
availability and food utilisation.
3
Nutrition density is defined as the ratio of nutrient content (in grams) to the total energy
content (in kilocalories)

Pulses/Beans/ Nuts
Milk/ Milk Products
Meat
Poultry
Eggs
Fish and Seafood (fresh/dried)
Dark green vegetable leafy
Other vegetable
Sugar/ Honey
Fruits
Oil

Pulses
Milk
Meat and fish

3
4
4

Vegetables

Sugar
Fruit
Oil

0.5
1
0.5

The sum of the scores is then used to determine the FCS. The maximum FCS has a
value of 112 which would be achieved if a household ate each food group every day
during the last 7 days. The total scores are then compared to pre-established
thresholds:
- Poor food consumption: 0 to 21
- Borderline food consumption: 21.5 to 35
- Acceptable food consumption: > 35
In line with WFPs methodology, the thresholds had to be adjusted considering the oil
consumption of char dwellers. In Bangladesh, there is a known high consumption of
edible oil. The FCS thresholds therefore had to be raised by seven points each to
consider this daily consumption of oil.
The char specific consumption thresholds are therefore:
- Poor food consumption : 0 to 28
- Borderline food consumption : 28.5 to 42
- Acceptable food consumption : > 42
Limitations of the FCS
Even though the FCS provides essential information on household diet, there are
limitations:
-

The FCS does not consider foods consumed outside of the household.
It does not provide any information on intra-household food distribution.
By collecting data on the number of days each food item was consumed in
the last 7 days, it makes it impossible to consider quantity of food eaten.
By using a seven day recall period, it provides a short term picture of food
security irrespective of seasonality.