Understanding Data About the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the Circana Consumer Network Panel
- by Christian A. Gregory
- 2/20/2025
Overview
The Circana (formerly, IRI) Consumer Network panel is a proprietary dataset that can be used to understand food prices, food demand, the food environment, consumer shopping behavior, and the relationships among them. This dataset is particularly relevant for food, nutrition, and health research. Circana’s advantages over other sources of data on food purchases and health include its unevenly spaced panel data, detail of purchase information, short data production schedule, and the duration of collection. One notable feature is the inclusion of two indicators of household SNAP participation: one captures point-in-time participation; the other captures utilization. This report examines the quality of those indicators for the years 2018–20 and assesses the prospects of using the indicators in diet, health, and nutrition research.
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