Peeling Open US Fruit Consumption Trends

By Sabrina Young, Hayden Stewart, Anne T. Byrne, Linda Kantor and Diansheng Dong

For a healthful and nutritionally adequate diet, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) 2020-2025 advises individuals to consume about one cup-equivalent of fruit for every 1,000 calories, with some variations for children and adolescents based on sex and physical activity.

For example, the guidelines recommend that adolescents 14-18 years old with an 1,800-calorie-a-day diet consume 1.5 cup equivalents of fruit a day and that members of the same age group with a 3,200-calorie diet consume 2.5 cup equivalents a day.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services release a new version of the Dietary Guidelines every five years. Since 2005, recommendations for fruit have remained consistent.

About 80% of the U.S. population consumes less than the recommended amount of fruit. The DGA 2020-25 defines fruit to include fresh, canned, frozen, and dried products as well as 100% juice. Eating or drinking a cup equivalent of each fruit type counts equally toward recommendations, although juice should not account for more than half of total fruit intake.

Given the importance of this food group to diet quality and the extent of underconsumption, the USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) recently examined U.S. fruit consumption patterns and trends.

U.S. consumers have been eating and drinking less fruit, on average, since the turn of the 21st century. Estimates from the ERS Loss Adjusted Food Availability Data show per capita U.S. total fruit availability declined from 0.95 cup equivalents per person per day in 2003 to 0.82 cup equivalents per person per day in 2021, a 14% drop.

Loss-Adjusted Food Availability data can be used as a proxy for national consumption, with estimates going back to 1970 and available for total fruit, as well as for fresh fruit, canned fruit, dried fruit, frozen fruit and fruit juice. The ERS data measures the availability over time of more than 200 food commodities.

ERS researchers then adjust the supply estimates down to account for food spoilage, plate waste and other losses. Estimates of U.S. per capita consumption are calculated by dividing the amount of a commodity that is available for human consumption after adjustment by total population size.

Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), collected at the individual level, similarly show total fruit intake in the United States declined 7% from 1 cup equivalent per person per day in 2003-04 to 0.93 cup equivalents per person per day in 2017-18.

Participants in this survey are asked to report all foods and beverages they consumed over two nonconsecutive days, as well as their income, demographic details and health status. Nutritionists use these data to study diet quality. About 5,000 individuals complete the NHANES each year of collection, and about 9,000 to 10,000 take part in every two-year survey wave.

A person’s nutritional needs and food consumption habits tend to change with age. Researchers at ERS and the University of Georgia used NHANES data to compare fruit consumption trends among children and teens aged 2 through 19 years, working-age adults aged 20 through 64, and seniors aged 65 or more. The researchers focused on the proportion of an individual’s overall diet, measured by calories, that is made up of fruit.

Children were found to fare best. The fruit density of children’s diets increased from an average of 0.55 cup equivalents per 1,000 calories in 2003-04 to 0.74 cup equivalents per 1,000 calories in 2017-18.

In-school meals drove the increase in fruit consumption among children. The fruit density of children’s diets when eating at school increased from 1 cup equivalent per 1,000 calories in 2003-04 to 1.36 cup equivalents per 1,000 calories in 2017-18. USDA’s National School Lunch Program requires that children in kindergarten through eighth grade be offered 0.5 cup equivalent of fruit per day. The requirement for high schoolers is 1 cup equivalent per day. For all ages, the School Breakfast Program requires offering 1 cup equivalent per day.

Seniors and working-age adults do not fare as well as children in terms of meeting dietary guidelines for fruit. In 2017-18, seniors consumed 0.59 cup equivalents of fruit per 1,000 calories, which is 0.16 cup equivalents less fruit per 1,000 calories than they consumed in 2003-04.

In addition to average fruit intakes, ERS researchers also studied the distribution of fruit intake. Researchers used NHANES food consumption data to assess the percentage of U.S. children and adults at very low fruit consumption (less than 25% of federal recommendations) and high fruit consumption (fully meeting federal recommendations).

Both children and adults, including seniors, consistently have fallen short of Federal guidelines. Only 23.2% of children and 14.7% of adults met the DGA’s fruit recommendations for their age and sex group in the period covering 2017 to March 2020. In that same period, 28.8% of children and 40.3% of adults consumed less than a quarter of fruit recommendations, representing an increase in little to no fruit intake from 2005 to 2008 for those age groups.

ERS researchers also sought to understand how individual and societal factors relate to being in the low- or high-consuming groups. They found the largest factors in predicting high consumption are health behaviors, including engaging in physical activity and not smoking, as well as health knowledge captured by awareness of USDA’s MyPlate.

On the other hand, those who have these healthy behaviors and knowledge were less likely to be low fruit consumers. Researchers also found income and fruit prices did not have a strong association with low or high consumption.

Sabrina Young, Hayden Stewart, Anne T. Byrne, Linda Kantor and Diansheng Dong are all economists for the USDA.