Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals Survey

Detailed information for 2003

The objective of the survey is to produce new statistical information on the functional food and nutraceutical sector and a profile of firms engaged in functional food and/or nutraceutical related activities in Canada.

Data release - October 6, 2003

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The objective of the survey is to produce new statistical information on the functional food and nutraceutical sector and a profile of firms engaged in functional food and/or nutraceutical related activities in Canada. Information from this survey may be used by businesses for economic or market analysis, by trade associations to study industry performance, by government departments and agencies to assist policy formation and by the academic community for research purposes.

Subjects

• Biotechnology
• Food, beverage and tobacco
• Manufacturing
• Science and technology

Data sources and methodology

Target population

All firms participating in functional food and/or nutraceutical related activities (for the purpose of human consumption) in Canada, as identified by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, or firms that indicated they were involved in such activities in the Canadian Biotechnology Survey 2001.

Instrument design

The Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals Survey questionnaire was developed in collaboration with the Small Business and Special Surveys Division; the Science, Innovation and Electronic and Information Division; Agriculture Division; and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The survey questionnaire was reviewed by Statistic Canada's Questionnaire Design Resource Centre and questionnaire testing was conducted in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada provided the Small Business and Special Surveys Division a list of firms involved in Functional Food and Nutraceutical related activities. The Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division of Statistics Canada also provided a list of companies that had indicated they were involved in functional food and/or nutraceutical related activities in the Canadian Biotechnology survey 2001. These two lists were merged and duplicate units were identified. The final sample size for the survey was 576 units.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2003-05-12 to 2003-06-27

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

Data were collected using a paper mail-out, mail-back questionnaire. Precontact was made by telephone prior to the mail-out. Follow-up was also conducted by telephone.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Error detection

Questionnaires were manually edited and outliers detected as they were received during collection. A series of edit rules were developed and invalid or inconsistent entries were corrected using these rules. Follow-up was conducted for missing entries that could not be manually edited.

Imputation

Hot deck imputation was used to impute qualitative questions. It was also used, combined with ratios, to impute some quantitative questions. Thus, a donor was randomly selected within a receiver's imputation group when required. Imputation groups were based on question 1, and had two possible values : either functional foods or nutraceuticals.

Donor imputation was also used to impute quantitative questions. A donor is found based on a distance between he and the receiver. The donor with the smallest distance is selected. This is called closest neighbour method.

Estimation

All tables were produced with the Generalized Estimation System (GES) and Excel. Totals and proportions were estimated. Given that a survey unit can be linked to more than one provincial enterprise, proportions were actually ratios between the variable of interest and the LINK variable.

Quality evaluation

The Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals Survey was the first survey of its kind conducted in Canada. Currently there are no published data comparable to the data collected by the Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals Survey.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

This methodology does not apply to this survey.

Data accuracy

The data accuracy indicators used for the Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals Survey were 'Standard Error' and the 'Coefficient of Variation'. The standard of error is a commonly used statistical measure indicating the sampling error of an estimate. The standard error and the coefficient of variation (standard error expressed as a percentage of the estimate) were used in the following tables to provide an indication of the level of data quality of the estimate. Please note that the coefficient of variation (CV) was not calculated for percentage tables.

Alphabetic symbols representing the size and range of the standard error and coefficient of variation (CV) were used in the statistical tables to provide and indication of the extent of the sampling error of the estimates. The letter 'A' indicates that the estimate has a very low standard of error or CV; the letter 'B' indicates that the standard error or CV is somewhat larger; and so forth. Some data with a higher standard error or CV (in the 'C' category) are precise enough for some purposes; however one should proceed with caution. The letter 'D' indicates that the estimate had a standard error or more than 15% or a C.V. of greater than 30%. Estimates subject to sampling error of this magnitude were not published.

The response rate for this survey was 48%.