Frequently Asked Questions

It's a research study looking at how households across the island of Ireland buy, prepare, and eat food, and how this affects nutrition, health, and sustainability.

This is the largest study of its kind ever carried out across the island of Ireland, involving around 1,500 households and about 5,000 participants in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Because of its scale, it can provide a much clearer picture of how people eat in everyday life and produce insights that are more reliable than previous smaller studies.

The findings can help inform nutrition guidance, public policy, and decisions by food producers, shops, and restaurants. The aim is to support healthier and more sustainable food choices for households across the island.

The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland operate within different policy and programme environments that influence how food is produced, sold, and consumed. By comparing households across both jurisdictions, the study can examine how those differences shape what people eat and identify lessons that may benefit both.

Participation begins with completing online questionnaires about your household’s eating habits and lifestyle. Participants will be asked to complete two online 24-hour dietary recalls, and can optionally provide measurements such as height, weight, blood pressure, a cheek swab, and a small finger-prick blood sample.

Participation in the study takes place over two to three weeks. Questionnaires can be completed at your own pace, whenever it suits your schedule.Households can choose to take part in follow-up studies if they wish. In doing so, they help researchers understand how diets and food habits change over time.

Once the two to three week assessment is complete, households will receive a personalised report on their nutrition.By participating in optional further studies, households become part of a community contributing to research on everyday food choices and can benefit from the knowledge generated by these studies.

Households across the island of Ireland can register their interest in taking part by contacting the relevant research team closest to where you live.Any adult in your household can register interest to join the study and other members of their household aged four and above may also take part. More details are available on our home page.

The study follows GDPR and relevant data protection laws, and the research team has extensive experience in privacy and data protection, running the study to the highest standards.Participants may withdraw from the study at any time and can have their data removed before it is fully anonymised. The team is available to support participants with any queries about their data or participation. All data and samples are pseudonymised and securely stored.

The Household Food and Health Study is run by  Ulster University, University College Dublin, University College Cork, and Queen’s University Belfast.It is funded by Research Ireland in the Republic of Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland.The study is conducted as part of the Co-Centre for Sustainable Food Systems programme, a research partnership across Ireland and the UK. The Co-Centre aims to generate evidence that can support the transition towards food systems that are healthier, environmentally sustainable, and economically viable. The Household Food and Health Study contributes to this evidence base by providing insights specifically on household food habits, which can help inform decisions affecting food producers, shops, restaurants, and households across the island.

As we are an all-island project, we have multiple centres across Ireland and Northern Ireland. Please contact your closest centre using the following details:Northern Ireland UU: Contact Dr Michelle Clements at householdfoodstudy@ulster.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 28 7012 4596QUB: Contact Dr Alysha Thompson at householdfoodstudy@qub.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 28 9097 1179Republic of IrelandUCD: Contact Dr Rebecca Finlay at householdfoodstudy@ucd.ie or call +353 (0)1 716 2451UCC: Contact Dr Cealan Henry at  householdfoodstudy@ucc.ie or call +353 (0)8 6109 1574

Biological samples (finger-prick blood sample and cheek swab) are encouraged but optional, you can take part in the study without providing any biological samples.

All participant data will be anonymised (we replace your name and other identifying details with a study ID number). The information that links this code to you is kept securely and separately and will be kept on restricted access folders with access only to the Research Team. Your data will be stored and managed securely, in line with data protection laws including Irish and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Yes - if your child is taking part in the study, their name will be required on the study consent form. From this point onwards, they will be allocated a study ID number, and their name will not be used on any data collection forms.