terminology related to food security

The US Department of Agriculture has classified food security and related terms (Bickel, 2000):

Food secure: “Households show no or minimal evidence of food insecurity.”

Food insecure without hunger: “Food insecurity is evident in household members’ concerns about adequacy of the household food supply and in adjustments to household food management, including reduced quality of food and increased unusual coping patterns. Little or no reduction in members’ food intake is reported”

Food insecure with hunger (moderate): “Food intake for adults in the household has been reduced to an extent that implies that adults have repeatedly experienced the physical sensation of hunger. In most (but not all) food-insecure households with children, such reductions are not observed at this stage for children”

Food insecure with hunger (severe): “At this level, all households with children have reduced the children’s food intake to an extent indicating that the children have experienced hunger. For some other households with children, this already has occurred at an earlier stage of severity. Adults in households with and without children have repeatedly experienced more extensive reductions in food intake”

Food insecure with hunger among children: “At least one child in the household (age 0-17) has been hungry during the year because of constrained household resources. [All children were not necessarily hungry. For example, only an older child experienced hunger, with younger children being shielded from hunger]”