Food consumption in the Canary Islands: nutritional implications of food imports and local production

The case under study, the archipelago of the Canary Islands, has some particularities that should be made explicit. It is an Autonomous Region of Spain, made up of eight islands, located on the western coast of the African continent and more than 1500 km from the nearest Spanish mainland port. With a population of over 2 million inhabitants and 15 million tourists a year, it is a region of high population density with a considerable proportion of non-resident consumption. As a Spanish region, it is part of the European Union’s Single Market and Schengen Area, but it has a specific integration regime (Programme of Specific Options for the Distance and Insularity of the Canary Islands, POSEI) as an Outermost Region of the EU that includes, among others, agri-food aspects that affect both its foreign trade and support for primary production. It should be added that its status as an island region has implications for food security, which receive specific attention from the United Nations (Small Island Developing States; http://​unohrlls.​org/​about-sids/​; details in points 59–63 of the Samoa Pathway declaration: https://​unohrlls.​org/​custom-content/​uploads/​2015/​01/​SAMOA-Pathway.​pdf).

In option A, the production of the local food industry is identified according to the criteria of the National Accounts (location of the producing company). Option B limits the production of the local food industry to foods whose basic raw material is mainly local (water, oil, wine and cheese).

Specifically, we have had access to the results published in [7] and corresponding to the CDC study for the first 5364 individuals between 18 and 75 years of age enrolled in a sample that began in 2000. These individuals were given a questionnaire about the previous year and a 24-h reminder (about the previous day) 3 years after the first questionnaire (2003). On the other hand, based on the publications of [4, 7], the results corresponding to the ENCA were obtained for a sample of 1747 individuals between the ages of 6 and 75 for the period 1997–1998. A questionnaire on quantity and frequency of consumption was given to these individuals, as well as a reminder questionnaire on the previous day’s consumption on two non-consecutive days selected over a fortnightly period.

Other factors to be taken into account are the counting criteria used in surveys for measuring the consumption of soft drinks (including tap water consumption), the estimation of the part of fat involved in the preparation of meals but not eaten, as well as the possible underestimation of the consumption of certain products outside the home (e.g. fresh fish).