Leveraging web surveys to streamline food consumption measurement: Lessons from Lebanon

In the face of Lebanon’s severe and protracted economic crisis, updating household consumption surveys to reflect contemporary realities has become both urgent and operationally challenging. Diary-based methods have traditionally been considered a gold standard for capturing detailed food consumption data but have become increasingly impractical in settings with limited resources or high respondent burden.

To address this, the World Bank piloted an innovative approach using a web-based pre-survey to prepare a recall-based food consumption module for the in-person 2022–2023 Lebanon Household Survey (LHS). This rapid diagnostic exercise not only yielded tentative insights into household food consumption and purchase behavior but also helped streamline the survey instrument while maintaining data integrity.

The core challenge was clear: the 2011–2012 Household Budget Survey included over 250 food items, a level of detail incompatible with recall-based interviews planned for the LHS. But relying solely on outdated lists risked omitting emerging staples or overrepresenting items no longer consumed due to sharp price hikes or income shocks.

Instead of organizing time-consuming and costly in-person or phone pre-surveys, the team turned to a more agile web-based alternative. Leveraging Facebook’s advertising platform for respondent outreach and SurveyMonkey for hosting, two versions of the Lebanon Wellbeing Survey were deployed nationwide in late 2022. One version captured food consumption over the past seven days and the other gathered information on the frequency of recent food purchases. More than 2,400 responses were collected within three weeks.

Findings from the web-surveys  validated the anticipated dietary simplification: households heavily relied on basic, affordable staples such as white Arabic bread, rice, potatoes, and lentils. In contrast, the consumption and purchase of meats, dairy products, and processed foods had sharply declined - alluding to economic constraints and adaptation strategies under crisis conditions. These trends were subsequently confirmed by data from the 2022–2023 Lebanon Household Survey, as detailed in the 2024 Lebanon Poverty and Equity Assessment (LPEA).

Figure 1: Top 20 Food Items Most Frequently Purchased in the Lebanon Web Survey (Nov 2022)

_{Source: World Bank staff estimates using LWS Round 2 (Version A).}

Notably, the 2022-2023 LPEA highlights a striking shift in household expenditure patterns compared to the 2011–2012 Household Budget Survey: the share of food spending on bread and cereals rose substantially, while spending on meat and other higher-cost food groups declined markedly (see figure 2). This reinforces the interpretation that households have simplified diets and prioritized caloric sufficiency over dietary diversity amidst ongoing economic pressures.

Figure 2: Over the past decade, Lebanese households increased spending on staples rose while reducing meat expenditure

_{Note: Estimates are limited to households in the governorates of Akkar, Beirut, Bekaa, Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon.}

_{Source: World Bank staff estimates using HBS 2011/2012 and LHS 2022/2023.}

These real-time insights directly informed the redesign of the LHS food module. In consultation with local partners, the team refined the food list to 128 items—retaining those that were frequently reported, nutritionally important, or increasingly central to household diets. Items with low reported prevalence were either dropped or aggregated into broader categories to streamline the instrument. 

The benefits were twofold. First, the approach enabled evidence-based revisions to the LHS survey instrument, ensuring it remained relevant and grounded in current behaviors. Second, it demonstrated how digital tools -when deployed strategically- can complement traditional survey methods, especially when time and resources are limited.

As development practitioners seek more agile collection approaches, Lebanon’s experience offers a compelling model. In the context of acute economic deterioration and institutional constraints, the web-based pre-survey proved to be a practical solution for adapting survey design. More broadly, this approach illustrates how rapid, low-cost digital diagnostics can enhance the efficiency and relevance of household survey instruments—regardless of setting—by providing timely insights into evolving household behaviors.

This blog is based on a longer note that is available from the Lebanon poverty team upon request.