Food

FSD holdings contain a number of data series and individual datasets suitable for research on food and nutrition.

There are also many datasets that contain individual questions and variables which are potentially useful to researchers of the subject. The data archived at the FSD can be downloaded free of charge from Aila Data Service, according to the conditions set for each dataset.

Please note that below is listed only a sample of all data available at the Data Archive and we encourage you to use keyword search more datasets on the subject on Aila. In addition, datasets suitable for research on the theme may be found from other European data archives by using CESSDA Data Catalogue (Opens in new tab).

Questions and variables of quantitative datasets that have been fielded in English or translated at the FSD can be explored by browsing through Aila variable search. If a quantitative dataset has not yet been translated, you can request a translation free of charge. Qualitative data are only available in their original language. Where applicable, all related materials are freely accessible on the study description page of each dataset.

Recent Data Releases

Quantitative study
Qualitative study

Datasets on the theme

FSD3616 University Student Health and Well-being Survey 2021
This national survey examined the health and health-related behaviour of university and university of applied sciences (polytechnic) students in Finland. Eating habits were investigated with a number of questions, for instance, asking whether the respondents ate at student restaurants, what diet they followed, on how many days per week they ate certain meals or snacks (e.g. breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner), and the consumption of fruit and vegetables.

FSD3240 Sleep, Exercise and Eating Habits of Swedish-Speaking Finnish Children 2006 and 2008
The dataset consists of six surveys which charted the eating habits, sleep and exercise of Swedish-speaking primary school children and their parents. Eating habits were examined with questions on, for example, school lunch habits, mealtimes, and food and drinks consumed most often.

FSD2727 Human Rights in Development and Food Security in Malawi 2006
The study explored human rights-based approaches to development cooperation in Malawi, focusing on what the approach implied in the areas of development, HIV/AIDS and food security. The data are in English. In some group interviews, chichewa was also used but these have been translated into English.

Data series

Data in these series also include questions on the theme.

Datasets elsewhere

People interested in finding data on food and nutrition should also take a look at data available at other data archives around the world.

In Finland, the Language Bank of Finland (Opens in new tab) also provides services to researchers and archives audio and video material. Research data produced in Finland may also be searched via the Fairdata.fi Etsin (Opens in new tab) . Services of various European social science data archives can be accessed through the website of CESSDA (Opens in new tab) . The UK Data Service (Opens in new tab) has, among other things, a wide variety of excellent qualitative data. Another good source of data is the German GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (Opens in new tab) . The extensive holdings of the American ICPSR (Opens in new tab) are also well worth searching.