El consumo de productos lácteos en España, 1950-2010

This paper, a case study of the great transformations undergone by food consumption patterns in Spain since c. 1950, reconstructs the evolution of the consumption of milk and milk derivatives. The paper homogenizes and triangulates the information given by several statistical sources, which use different methodologies and cover different periods. This information is combined with qualitative material. Milk consumption grew rapidly during the first half of the period and, after a phase of stagnation, started to decrease in the last years of the twentieth century. On the contrary, the consumption of (an increasing variety of) milk derivatives grew steadily throughout the whole of the period. The contrast between the respective trajectories of milk and its derivatives underlines the relevant role played by the elaboration and diversification of foodstuffs in the shaping of consumption patterns.