This publication revises and brings to date the detailed information on per capita consumption of all major food commodities in continental United States, including the basic data on supplies and distribution from which the consumption estimates are derived. Sources and methods are described and evaluated; indexes of supply-utilization, production, and per capita civilian consumption are developed; the nutritive value of the food supply is estimated and appraised; and some supplementary information useful for the analysis of the consumption of and the demand for food is presented. In Consumption of Food in the United States, 1909-52, there is presented for the first time an "index of supply-utilization" of farm products having food use. This new index breaks down the combined utilization of such products, on a farm-value basis, both according to sources of supply and according to use and disposition.