Source:
May 9, 2010

As Iran’s population has increased by 76 percent to 70 million, the consumption of various foodstuffs among Iranian families has dropped by 24 percent.

Based on the figures issued by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Iranians intake of rice, bread and red meat has been sharply reduced from 1992 to 2009.

The same source which describes the combination of foodstuffs consumed by Iranian families on an annual basis shows that in 1992 each family has eaten 1583 kilograms of foodstuffs belonging to 13 groups, but in 2009 the amount reduced to 1197 kilograms.

The consideration of items within such family basket reveals that the use of three groups of foodstuffs including poultry meat, cheese and milk has been increased respectively to 30, 1 and 68 kilograms annually.

On the other hand, in this period the intake of bread, rice, sugar, yoghourt, tea and egg was dropped and only the consumption of sea animals’ meat has remained stable in the basket of Iranian families. However regarding the fact that the average members of the families has plunged from 4.9 to 3.8 members, so it can be said that actually the eating of fish meat and other sea animals has been raised in parallel.

Totally the consumption of various kinds of red and white meat has been decreased by 9 kilograms at the same time means that per capita consumption of fish meat has not changed but chicken meat use up has been increased by 30 kilograms in Iranian dishes. One can say that the 39 kilograms drop of red meat consumption in family baskets has not been completely made up and protein intake which is mainly provided by meat has fallen.

But the highest rate of decrease belongs to bread and rice, as CBI figures show that in 1992 to 2009 the annual consumption of various types of bread has been reduced from 709 kgs to 445 proving that the eating of this foodstuff has been dropped about 37 percent.

Furthermore in 1992 each Iranian family ate 205 kilograms of rice which plunged to 146 kilograms, it means that rice consumption has dropped about 59 kilograms or 28 percent.

However it should not be forgotten that a fall in the quantity of foodstuffs used up by Iranian people does not indicate to malnutrition or a reduction in the nourishing value of the foodstuffs, but changes in consumption models which have been set as macro policies by different government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in post-revolution times.

Among these policies one can refer to increasing consumption of milk, white meat or a drop in eating bread. The CBI report shows that such policies have come to result and the drink of milk as a high quality foodstuff has been established among Iranian families.