Overview

The EC-FAO Programme has helped develop  tools to measure dietary quality and food access. There are the:

Dietary Diversity Questionnaire (DDQ)

The dietary diversity questionnaire captures information on dietary quality. It shows what food from different food groups were consumed over the previous 24 hours by individuals or households.  This simple to use tool can be used in situations where rapid assessments are necessary.

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The Latin American Household Food Security Measurement Scale (ELCSA)

The Latin American Household Food Security Measurement Scale (ELCSA) aims at standardizing the measurement of food insecurity in the region.

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The Household Hunger Scale (HHS)

The Household Hunger Scale (HHS) is based on the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) but has been modified to make it more applicable across cultures.  The HHS  has a new indicator that measures household hunger in highly food insecure areas. For an explanation, see: http://www.fantaproject.org/downloads/pdfs/HHS_Validation_Report_May2010.pdf

> More Information on the Household Hunger Scale (HHS)

The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS)

Note: The Household Food Insecurity Scale has been phased out.

The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) has nine questions for measuring problems related to household food access including anxiety about procuring food, and quantity and quality of diets. Its classification system identifies a household's food access status by capturing the severity and frequency of experiences over the previous 30 days. Households are then classified as having:

a) adequate food access
b) a mild food access deficit
c) a moderate food access deficit
d) a severe food access deficit

This simple to use tool is ideal for situations where a rapid assessment of the situation is necessary.