Bread and pastries, the Romanians’ staple food

Bread and bakery products represent staple food for Romanians, with  the average consumption reaching 8 kilos on a monthly basis in Romania last year, meaning 96.5 kilos per year, reads a report released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on Wednesday, on World Food Day.

The findings also show that a Romanian is annually eating roughly 58 kilos of meat. In 2018, the monthly average meat consumption stood at 3.60kg/person, on the rise as against 2017. Together with meat dishes the consumption climbs to 4.84kg/person a month, also on the rise compared to the previous year.

As for the milk and dairies consumption, it stood at 5.63 litres/person on average every month in 2018. Pensioners were the social category that consumed the highest amount of milk- 6.21 litres/person in 2017 and 6.08 litres last year.

Cheese and cream consumption is higher across the old people’s households (1.66kg/person) and lower amongst unemployed (1.08kg/person).

Potatoes consumption is relatively common across all households in Romania. In 2018, the average potatoes consumption per person stood at 3 kilos. The lowest consumption of potatoes was registered among farmers, unemployed and employees, and the highest among self-employed and pensioners, although potatoes faced the highest price increase this summer.

The consumption of vegetables stood at 8.08 kilos per person on a monthly basis last year, on the rise as against 2017. Vegetables are most consumed in one-person families and least among families with four or more children.

Fruit consumption is relatively low across all households, with a monthly average consumption of 4.03kilos/person in 2018.