UK Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Rates

Diet and nutrition
Food

The chart below shows the percentage of the population in the UK who consumed the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables in 2002, 2006 and 2010.

Annotated response

5 correction notes

The bar chart illustrates the percentages of males, females and children in the UK consuming the recommended daily amount of fruit and vegetables, in three separate years (2002, 2006 and 2010).

Overall, the proportion of all groups eating fruit and vegetables increased over the period shown. Also, while women had a tendency to consume these foods the most, the opposite was true for children.

As can be seen from the chart, in 2002, approximately a quarter of females in the UK ate the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables. This was followed by of males consuming these foods daily, which was that of children.

Over the following eight years, the figures for all groups increased to reach peaks in 2006 in which the figure for women was highest at just over 30%. By 2010, however, the percentage of females, males and children eating fruit and vegetables had decreased slightly to 27%, 24% and 14% respectively.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.5

The report is clearly organised and describes the general group patterns with controlled language. However, the overview omits the intermediate peak and decline, and the time interval leading to 2006 is wrong. The 2006 detail is also compressed, giving only the women’s peak rather than comparing all three groups.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

7.0

The report identifies the net increase and the highest and lowest groups, while the body describes the 2006 peak and later fall. It does not report the men’s 28% or children’s 16% peaks, and it incorrectly describes the 2002–2006 interval as eight years.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.5

Information is organised logically into an introduction, overview, and two body stages with effective linking devices such as 'Overall', 'This was followed by', and 'By 2010, however', showing clear progression throughout.

Lexical Resource

7.5

Vocabulary is flexible and precise, with natural phrases like 'consuming the recommended daily amount', 'had a tendency to consume', and 'had decreased slightly', and only negligible imprecision such as 'nearly 22%' for an exact figure.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.5

A wide range of structures is used with strong control, including participial phrases ('eating fruit and vegetables'), relative clauses ('in which the figure for women was highest'), and accurate past perfect ('had decreased'), with only rare minor slips.

More responses with feedback

View all 6 responses (7.0–7.5)