Food Consumption Score (FCS)

What: The Food Consumption Score (FCS) is an index that was developed by the Word Food Programme (WFP) in 1996. It is a more complex indicator of a household's food security status, as it considers not only dietary diversity and food frequency but also the relative nutritional value of different food groups (on the other hand, its use of relatively long, 7 days recall period, might make the data less precise). Why: The FCS is the core indicator of food consumption recommended by WFP. When: Applicable to most food assistance projects that provide in-kind, non-therapeutic food, cash or voucher transfers

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

1) Conduct individual interviews with a representative sample of the target household representatives assessing how many days in the past 7 days members of the household have eaten any of the foods from the 9 pre-defined food groups by asking: "I would like to ask you about all the different foods that your household members have eaten in the last 7 days. During this period, how many days in the past 7 days has your household eaten ..." [gradually name all types of foods from each of the nine groups listed in WFP's FCS guidelines - access below]. The FCS questionnaire should be adapted for each unique setting so that common, local foods are included in each food category in the questionnaire. Data collectors should refer to the WFP guidance (above) to get ideas on how to adapt the questionnaire to the local context. The food groups, however, cannot be changed.

2) Sum up all the consumption frequencies of foods belonging to the same food groups (there is a total of 9 groups, as listed in WFP's FCS guidelines). Recode the frequency value of each food group above 7 as 7 (e.g. if the summed up frequency value is 10, recode it as 7).

3) To create new weighted food group scores, multiply the value obtained for each food group by its "importance weight" specified in WFP's FCS guidelines.

4) By summing the weighed food group scores you calculate the Food Consumption Score (FCS).

5) According to the FCS's value, indicate the percentage of households with “poor” FCS (0-21 scores), “borderline” FCS (21,5 - 35 scores) and “acceptable” FCS (35,5 scores and above). However, these thresholds are not valid in all contexts - you might need to modify them based on the dietary patterns of the target population – read carefully WFP’s Guidance Sheet provided below and consult the Food Security Cluster in your country of operation.

6) Calculate the percentage of households with “acceptable” FCS by dividing the number of households with FCS higher or equal to 35.5 scores by the total number of surveyed households and multiplying the result by 100.

Disaggregate the data by wealth and other relevant criteria.

1) FCS is one of ECHO's Key Outcome Indicators (KOI). According to ECHO’s guidance (see below), FCS's target value should "be greater than 80%, but may be context specific.”

2) FCS is a good indicator of a household's food security; however, it does not help with understanding the quality of diets consumed by a specific group of household members, such as children 6-59 months of age or PLW

3) FCS is prone to seasonal variations. Do your best to collect baseline and endline data at the same time of a year (preferably most food insecure time of the year); otherwise, it is very likely that they'll not be comparable (i.e. providing largely useless data).

4) Make sure you do not collect data during fasting periods, such as pre-Easter time or Ramadan.

5) FCS gives more importance to macro-nutrient rich foods in comparison to micro-nutrient rich foods as indicated by the weights assigned to each food group.