[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 193 (Wednesday, October 5, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61664-61666]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-25679]


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 Notices
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  Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 193 / Wednesday, October 5, 2011 / 
Notices  

[[Page 61664]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Economic Research Service


Notice of Intent To Request 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 Study.

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received on or before 
December 5, 2011 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, 355 E St., SW., Room 05N09, Washington, DC 20024-3221. 
Comments may also be submitted via fax to the attention of Mark Denbaly 
at 202-245-4779 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 355 E St., SW., 
Washington, DC 20024-3221.
    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 Study.
    OMB Number: 0536-XXXX.
    Expiration Date: Three years from the Date of Approval.
    Type of Request: New Collection.
    Abstract: The National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase 
Study (the National Food Study) will be conducted over a six-month 
period from April through September 2012. The survey will collect 
nationally representative data from 5,000 households, including 1,500 
households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance 
Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program). Each participating 
household will be asked to provide the pertinent information over a 
one-week period. Legislative authority for the planned data collection 
is Section 17 (a)(1) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, 7 U.S.C. 
2026. 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 SNAP in delivering 
nutrition-related benefits.
    The information to be collected by the National Food Study 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 SNAP 
participants and nonparticipants.
    This nationally representative survey will collect data from a 
planned 5,000 households selected at random from within 50 Primary 
Sampling Units (counties or groups of counties) in 27 States. 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 barcodes on all foods 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

[[Page 61665]]

household respondent will also be asked to complete two interviews: (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 in person at the end of the data 
collection week and will collect information about non-food 
expenditures, income, health status, diet and nutrition knowledge, and 
food security. The primary household respondent will be asked to 
complete two paper forms: (1) the Meals and Snacks form contains a grid 
with checkboxes to indicate the meals and snacks consumed by each 
household member on each day of the one-week data collection period; 
(2) the Respondent Feedback form contains four questions about 
household participation in the survey, to be completed at the end of 
the data collection week. To conduct the economic analyses of household 
food choice behavior, data from state agencies about participation in 
food programs may be used in combination with collected data. Any state 
data obtained will be kept strictly confidential. The confidential 
program data and linked files will be used solely for statistical and 
economic research purposes that inform program administration, not for 
enforcement purposes.
    All study instruments will be kept as simple and respondent-
friendly as possible. Responses are voluntary and confidential. Study 
instruments and procedures were tested during the National Food Study 
Field Test, conducted from February through May 2011. The field test 
collected data from 400 households selected at random from within two 
Primary Sampling Units (counties), and tested the efficacy of two 
alternate survey protocols for collecting food data and two different 
incentive levels for time spent completing the forms.
    Responses from the National Food Study will be combined for 
statistical purposes and reported only in aggregate or statistical 
form. Two sets of data files will be prepared from survey data: (1) 
Public use data files that will not contain any personal identifiers 
like names and addresses of respondents; and (2) restricted-access 
files that will contain all data items in the public use files, plus 
geocodes for households and public locations (stores and restaurants) 
where foods were acquired.
    Affected Public: Respondent groups include: (1) Households 
participating in SNAP; (2) non-SNAP households with incomes below 100% 
of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL); (3) non-SNAP households with 
incomes between 100% and 185% of the FPL; and (4) non-SNAP households 
with incomes above 185% of the FPL.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: The estimated number of 
respondents includes: (1) 24,675 households screened for income 
eligibility (it is expected that 19,740 households, or 80 percent, will 
complete the screener and 4,935, or 20 percent, will not); (2) of the 
7,726 households expected to be determined to be eligible for the 
survey after completing the screener, 5,795 (75 percent) are expected 
to agree to participate and complete Household Interview 1 and 
collect food data, and 1,932, (25 percent) will not; (3) of the 5,795 
households who complete Household Interview 1 5,099 (88 
percent) are expected to complete reporting of food obtained for home 
preparation and consumption, three Telephone interviews to report food 
away from home, and Household Interview 2, while 695 (12 
percent) will not; (4) of the 5,795 households who complete Household 
Interview 1, 4,925 (85 percent) are expected to complete the 
Meals and Snacks form and Respondent Feedback form, and 869 (15 
percent) will not; and (5) of the expected 13,892 food diaries to be 
completed (i.e., an average of 2.4 family members per household), 
12,225 diaries (88 percent) are expected to be completed and 1,667 (12 
percent) will not.
    Estimates of the percentages of respondents who will agree to 
complete the forms are based on the National Food Study Field Test 
(conducted from February through May 2011) and, insofar as possible, on 
experience with previous data collections of similar complexity.
    Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: 6.51 (average). 
Estimated responses per respondent are as follows: all 24,675 sampled 
households will be asked to respond to the screener once; an estimated 
7,726 survey-eligible households will be asked to respond to Household 
Interview 1 once; and an estimated 5,795 households completing 
Household Interview 1 will be asked to respond to Household 
Interview 2 once.
    The estimated 5,795 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 13,892 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 5,795 households will be asked to report food diary 
information over the telephone three times, complete the Meals and 
Snacks form on each of 7 days, and complete the Respondent Feedback 
form once.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 160,755.
    Estimated Time per Response: 0.23 hours. As shown in the table 
below, the estimated time of response varies from 0.02 hours (1 minute) 
to 0.58 hours (35 minutes) per instrument for respondents and from 0.02 
hours (1 minute) to 0.08 hours (5 minutes) per instrument for non-
respondents. These estimates of respondent burden are based on the 
National Food Study field test.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 37,562.55 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........           19740            1.00           19740            0.17         3290.00
    Attempted interviews                    4935            1.00            4935            0.08          411.25
     (including Short Form for
     Refusals)..................
Household Interview 1:
    Completed interviews........            5795            1.00            5795            0.42         2414.38

[[Page 61666]]

 
    Attempted interviews........            1932            1.00            1932            0.08          160.96
Household Interview 2:
    Completed interviews........            5099            1.00            5099            0.58         2974.51
    Attempted interviews........             695            1.00             695            0.05           34.77
Reporting food obtained for home
 preparation or consumption:
    Completed reports...........            5099            3.00           15297            0.17         2549.58
    Attempted reports...........             695            1.00             695            0.05           34.77
Food diary:
    Completed reports...........           12225            7.00           85573            0.25        21393.27
    Attempted reports...........            1667            3.00            5001            0.08          416.75
Telephone reporting of ``food
 away from home``:
    Completed interviews........            5099            3.00           15297            0.25         3824.37
    Attempted interviews........             695            1.00             695            0.08           57.95
Meals and Snacks Form:
    Completed interviews........            4925            7.00           34477            0.02          574.62
    Attempted interviews........             869            1.00             869            0.02           14.49
Respondent Feedback Form:
    Completed interviews........            4925            1.00            4925            0.08          410.44
    Attempted interviews........             869            1.00             869            0.02           14.49
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Total responding burden.          24,675            6.51         160,755            0.23        37562.55
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* Estimates are rounded to the nearest hundredth.


     Dated: September 27, 2011.
Sarahelen Thompson,
Acting Administrator, Economic Research Service, U. S. Department of 
Agriculture.
[FR Doc. 2011-25679 Filed 10-4-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-18-P