[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 95 (Tuesday, May 18, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27701-27703]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-11832]


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 Notices
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  Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 95 / Tuesday, May 18, 2010 / 
Notices  

[[Page 27701]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Economic Research Service


Notice of Intent To Request a New Information Collection

AGENCY: Economic Research Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this 
notice invites the general public and other public agencies to send 
comments regarding any aspect of this proposed information collection. 
This is a new collection for the National Food Survey Field Test.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received on or before 
July 19, 2010 to be assured of consideration.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments concerning this notice to Mark Denbaly, 
Food Economics Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, 1800 M St., NW., Room N2164, Washington, DC 20036-5801. 
Comments may also be submitted via fax to the attention of Mark Denbaly 
at 202-694-5661 or via e-mail to [email protected]. Comments will 
also be accepted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to http://www.regulations.gov, and follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments electronically.
    All written comments will be open for public inspection at the 
office of the Economic Research Service during regular business hours 
(8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday) at 1800 M St., NW., Room 
N2164, Washington, DC 20036-5801.
    All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the 
request for Office of Management and Budget approval. All comments will 
be a matter of public record. Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the 
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper 
performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the 
information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 
agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions 
used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the 
collection of information on those who are to respond, including use of 
appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information contact Mark 
Denbaly at the address in the preamble. Tel. 202-694-5390.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: National Food Survey Field Test.
    OMB Number: 0536-XXXX.
    Expiration Date: Three years from the date of approval.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Abstract: This field test of the National Food Survey will be 
conducted over a two-month period with about 400 households to test 
survey procedures for the planned full-scale, nationally representative 
National Food Survey. Legislative authority for the planned data 
collection is Section 17 [7 U.S.C. 2026](a)(1) of the Food and 
Nutrition Act of 2008. This section authorizes the Secretary to enter 
into contracts with private institutions to undertake research that 
will help improve the administration and effectiveness of the 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in delivering 
nutrition-related benefits.
    The information to be collected by the National Food Survey is 
necessary to assess and understand the relationships among: (1) Foods 
purchased for consumption at home and away from home over a one-week 
period, as well as foods acquired through food and nutrition assistance 
programs (both public and private); (2) household access to food, 
including locations where food is acquired and distance to acquisition 
points; (3) number of meals and snacks consumed by each household 
member during a one-week period; and (4) household characteristics, 
including income, participation in federal food assistance programs, 
non-food expenditures, food security, health status, and diet and 
nutrition knowledge of the primary food shopper.
    This survey will provide data not currently available to program 
officials and researchers, thereby broadening the scope of economic 
analyses of food choices made by U.S. households and how those choices 
influence diet quality and reflect decisions about participation in 
food assistance programs. The information to be collected by the survey 
is necessary to assess and understand the relationships among: (1) The 
types of foods and beverages households purchase, including those 
obtained and consumed away from home; (2) the nutritional quality of 
these foods and beverages; (3) the types of food retailers within 
proximity to households; (4) the influence of household income and food 
prices on purchases of food brought home and food consumed away from 
home; (5) levels of food security and the relationships between food 
security and types of food purchases; (6) levels of dietary knowledge 
and the relationship with types of food purchases; and (7) differences 
in food acquisition and food security outcomes between participants in 
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food 
Stamp Program) and nonparticipants.
    The field test will collect data from about 400 low-income 
households selected at random from within two Primary Sampling Units 
(counties). The sample will be selected from an address-based sampling 
frame. Households residing at selected addresses will be asked to 
complete a brief screener to determine eligibility. Eligible households 
will be asked to participate in the one-week survey. The primary 
respondent, identified as the primary food shopper, will be asked to 
use a handheld scanner provided by the study to scan all foods with 
barcodes brought into the home for a one-week period. All members of 
the household age 11 years and older will be asked to keep a food diary 
of all foods that they acquire and consume away from home during the 
one-week period; primary respondents will report the food diary 
information for all household members via brief telephone interviews 
three times during the week. The primary household respondent will also 
be asked to complete three interviews:

[[Page 27702]]

(1) Household Interview 1 will be conducted in person by a 
field interviewer at the start of the data collection week and will 
collect information about household demographics, food shopping, and 
participation in food assistance programs; (2) Household Interview 
2 will be conducted by telephone in the middle of the data 
collection week and will collect information about non-food 
expenditures, income, and assets; (3) Household Interview 3 
will be conducted in person at the end of the data collection week and 
will collect information about health status, diet and nutrition 
knowledge, and food security.
    The field test will test the efficacy of two alternate survey 
protocols for collecting food data (``simple'' and ``comprehensive'') 
and two different incentive levels for time spent completing the forms. 
Respondent households will be randomly assigned to different survey 
protocols and incentive levels.
    All study instruments will be kept as simple and respondent-
friendly as possible. Responses are voluntary and confidential. 
Responses will be combined for statistical purposes and reported only 
in aggregate or statistical form. Data files from the field test will 
not be released to the public.
    Affected Public: Respondent groups include: (1) Households 
participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); 
and (2) low-income households not participating in SNAP, where low-
income is defined as household income at or below 185 percent of the 
poverty guidelines.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: The estimated number of 
respondents for the field test includes: (1) 1,476 households screened 
for income eligibility (it is expected that 1,063 households, or 72 
percent, will complete the screener and 413, or 28 percent, will not); 
(2) of the 585 households expected to be determined to be eligible for 
the survey after completing the screener, 503 (86 percent) are expected 
to agree to participate and complete Household Interview 1 and 
to collect food data, and 82, (14 percent) will not; (3) of the 82 
households expected to decline participation in the survey, 61 (74 
percent) are expected to complete the Short Form for Refusals, and 21 
(26 percent) are expected to decline; (4) of the 503 households who 
complete Household Interview 1 and are eligible for remaining 
survey components, 453 (90 percent) are expected to complete Household 
Interview 2, reporting of food obtained for home preparation 
and consumption, and the food diary for all household members, and 50 
(10 percent) will not; (5) of the 503 households who complete Household 
Interview 1, 402 (80 percent) are expected to complete 
Household Interview 3 and three Telephone interviews to report 
food diary information, and 101 (20 percent) will not; and (6) of the 
of the expected 1,207 food diaries to be completed (i.e., an average of 
2.4 family members per household), 1,086 diaries (90 percent) are 
expected to be completed and 121 (10 percent) will not.
    Estimates of the percentages of respondents who will agree to 
complete the forms are based, insofar as possible, on experience with 
previous data collections of similar complexity.
    Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: 9.37 (average). 
Estimated responses per respondent are as follows: All 1,476 sampled 
households will be asked to respond to the screener once; an estimated 
585 survey-eligible households will be asked to respond to the 
Household Interview 1 once; an estimated 81 households will be 
asked to respond to the Short Form for Refusals once; an estimated 503 
household completing Household Interview 1 will be asked to 
respond to Household Interview 2 once; and an estimated 452 
households completing Household Interview 2 will be asked to 
respond to Household Interview 3 once.
    The estimated 503 households completing Household Interview 
1 will be asked to complete reports on and scan food brought 
into the home, with an estimated frequency of three times during the 
seven-day data collection period. An estimated 1,207 family members 
aged 11 and above (an average of 2.4 members per household) will be 
asked to complete seven daily food diaries for food not brought home. 
An estimated 503 households will be asked to report food diary 
information over the telephone three times.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 13,827.
    Estimated Time per Response: 0.25 hours. As shown in the table 
below, the estimated time of response varies from 0.13 hours (8 
minutes) to 0.58 hours (35 minutes) per instrument for respondents and 
from 0.03 hours (2 minutes) to 0.08 hours (5 minutes) per instrument 
for non-respondents. These estimates of respondent burden are based on 
experience with previous data collections of similar complexity.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 3,400.67 hours. See 
the table below for the estimated total annual burden for each type of 
instrument.

                                                Reporting Burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                     Estimated
                                     Estimated       Responses                       Estimated     total annual
           Description               number of     annually per    Total annual   average number     hours of
                                    respondents     respondent       reponses      of hours per      response
                                                                                    response *        burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Household screener:
    Completed interviews........           1,063            1.00           1,063            0.25          265.75
    Attempted interviews........             413            1.00             413            0.08           34.42
Household Interview 1:
    Completed interviews........             503            1.00             503            0.42          209.58
    Attempted interviews........              82            1.00              82            0.08            6.83
Short Form for Refusals:
    Completed interviews........              61            1.00              61            0.13            8.13
    Attempted interviews........              21            1.00              21            0.03            0.70
Household Interview 2:
    Completed interviews........             453            1.00             453            0.58          264.25
    Attempted interviews........              50            1.00              50            0.05            2.50
Household Interview 3:
    Completed interviews........             402            1.00             402            0.33          134.00
    Attempted interviews........             101            1.00             101            0.05            5.05

[[Page 27703]]

 
Reporting food obtained for home
 preparation or consumption:
    Completed reports...........             453            3.00           1,359            0.17          226.50
    Attempted reports...........              50            1.00              50            0.05            2.50
Food diary:
    Completed reports...........           1,086            7.00           7,602            0.25        1,900.54
    Attempted reports...........             120            3.00             360            0.08           30.00
Telephone reporting of ``food
 away from home'':
    Completed interviews........             402            3.00            1206            0.25          301.50
    Attempted interviews........             101            1.00             101            0.08            8.42
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Total responding burden.           1,476            9.37          13,827            0.25        3,400.67
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* Estimates are rounded to the nearest hundredth.


    Dated: April 30, 2010.
Katherine R. Smith,
Administrator, Economic Research Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-11832 Filed 5-17-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-18-P