It has been proved that the need for studying the characteristics of food consumption increases during periods of exacerbation of systemic threats of both internal and external nature. Overview The scientific basis for the formation of consumer demand and the factors that determine it in the current conditions of the country have been overviewed. It has been established that existing models of consumption function in national conditions are limited by the following factors: the specificity of income distribution for consumption and savings; most of the models have a high level of mathematical abstraction, which complicates the development of real consumption patterns; regularities, which the models are grounded on, are real manifestation in practice only in a stable economy. The peculiarities of formation of consumer demand for food in Ukraine , taking into account the structure of income distribution of rural and urban population regarding kinds of food, location (town, countryside) and some sources of food self-supply, have been highlighted. There have been suggested the directions for expansion of economic availability of food for the population of the country through poverty reduction, the introduction of targeted support for disadvantaged groups and focus on achieving balanced nutrition of all age groups.