Introduction. There was conducted the study of the actual nutrition in the population of the Russian Federation in 2017–2021, including a study of its trend and compliance with recommended rational standards.

Materials and methods. The study used information from the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) on consumption in population of the Russian Federation of the main food groups in households in 2017–2021. The annual representative sample was forty seven thousand eight hundred households. A method used to analyze time series of consumption of basic food products and a comparison of actual nutrition with recommended rational standards was carried out for the whole country, Federal districts, and constituent entities of the Federation.

Results. In the Russian Federation in 2021, compared to 2017, consumption of most major food groups decreased. Consumption of meat and meat products increased by 6.8%, eggs by 1.3%. Consumption of fish and fish products remained at the same level. The analysis shows a decline in the consumption of bread and bakery products in all federal districts, with the exception of the Far East (an increase of 1.6%); potatoes, vegetable oil, with the exception of the Far East (an increase of 0.8%). At the same time, there is an increase in the consumption of meat and meat products in all federal districts, with the exception of the Far Eastern (decrease by 13.6%). For other product groups, consumption variations were noted.

Below the recommended rational norms, the Russian population consumes fish and fish products, potatoes, bread, and bakery products, milk and dairy products, vegetables, fruits and berries, eggs, and vegetable oil. At the same time, excessive consumption of sugar (3.8 times higher than the norm), meat and meat products (27% higher than the norm) were noted.

In the Federal Districts, consumption of most major food groups is below the recommended rational standards. In all federal districts, consumption of meat and meat products, sugar and confectionery products has increased.

Significant differences have been established in the compliance of consumption levels with recommended rational standards by the population of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in 2021. In most regions of the Russian Federation, high consumption of meat and meat products by the population is noted. All regions of the Federation have high consumption of sugar and confectionery products.

Limitations. This study is limited by the size of the representative sample, which was 47.8 thousand households.

Conclusion. The consequence of an irrational nutrition structure is a violation of the nutritional status, which is expressed in an increase in the prevalence among the population in recent years of such alimentary-dependent pathologies as obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and a number of others.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study does not require submission to a biomedical ethics committee or other documents, since non-invasive research methods were used in the work.

Contribution:Kuzmin S.V. — concept and design of the study, writing the text;Rusakov V.N. — collection and processing of material, writing the text;Setko A.G. — editing. All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: October 31, 2023 / Accepted: December 28, 2023 / Published: January 31, 2024