India - Household Consumer Expenditure, January-December, 1983, NSS 38th Round

Meal
A 'Meal' is composed of one of more readily cat able (generally cooked) items of food, the usual major constituent of which is cereal food. The meals consumed by a person twice or thrice a day provide him/her the required energy of (calorie) and other nutrients for living and for pursuing his/her normal avocations. A 'meal' as opposed to 'snacks ' as opposed to 'snacks', 'nasta' or 'high tea' , contains larger quantum and variety of food. In rare cases, a full meal may contain larger quantity of non-cereal food. Even that, if the total quantum of food in plate is heavy as a meal, the contents of the food plate will also be considered as a real. Sometimes the contents of a 'nasta' may not be very different from the contents of a 'meal'. The difference in quantity will there be the guiding factor for deciding whether the plate is to be led as a 'meal ' or a nasta.

A person rendering domestic service to a number of households during the day time (like cleaning utensils, dusting and cleaning of rooms, washing linens, carrying water from outside etc.) and gets some food from each of the households he/she serves. Although the quantum of food received from a single household may, by quantity, be far less than a full meal, the total quantity of food received from all the households taken together would often, if not more, be at least equivalent to a full meal. In this particular situation, the person will be considered to be consuming one meal every day under 'meals taken away from home'.