India - Household Consumer Expenditure, NSS 54th Round, Schedule 1, January - June 1998

Meal
A 'Meal' is composed of one of more readily cat able (generally cooked) items of food, the usual major constituent of which is cereal food. The meals consumed by a person twice or thrice a day provide him/her the required energy of (calorie) and other nutrients for living and for pursuing his/her normal avocations. A 'meal' as opposed to 'snacks ' as opposed to 'snacks', 'nasta' or 'high tea' , contains larger quantum and variety of food. In rare cases, a full meal may contain larger quantity of non-cereal food. Even that, if the total quantum of food in plate is heavy as a meal, the contents of the food plate will also be considered as a real. Sometimes the contents of a 'nasta' may not be very different from the contents of a 'meal'. The difference in quantity will there be the guiding factor for deciding whether the plate is to be led as a 'meal ' or a nasta.

Sometimes meals are provided by the employer. These may be as perquisites or as part of wages in kind. These meals are
generally consumed at the place of work and are to be considered as meals taken away from home. It may not be rare that meals provided by the employer are brought home by the employees and consumed there. Such meals are also to be considered as meals taken away from home. In this column the number of such meals received and consumed during the reference period by an individual member will be recorded.