Impacts of COVID-19 on changing patterns of household food consumption: An intercultural study of three countries

Asker Kartari; Asli Emine Özen; Antonia Correia; Jun Wen; Metin Kozak

doi:10.1016/j.ijgfs.2021.100420

Impacts of COVID-19 on changing patterns of household food consumption: An intercultural study of three countries

Int J Gastron Food Sci. 2021 Dec:26:100420. doi: 10.1016/j.ijgfs.2021.100420. Epub 2021 Aug 31.

Authors

Asker Kartari¹, Asli Emine Özen², Antonia Correia³, Jun Wen⁴, Metin Kozak¹

Affiliations

¹ Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey.
² Final International University, Girne, TRNC, Turkey.
³ University of Algarve, Algarve, Portugal.
⁴ Edit Cowan University, Perth, Australia.

Abstract

In light of COVID-19's effects on individuals' social, economic, political, and psychological values, this paper aims to investigate the pandemic's role in possible changes to people's food consumption and meal habits in three countries, namely China, Portugal, and Turkey. The sample includes individuals from the three countries, exploratory factor analysis and non-parametric tests were used to test the differences. Results suggest that coronavirus has played a strong part in altering households' food consumption and meal habits within these countries. The pandemic has particularly led to greater consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and spending more time eating meals at home. Portugal appears to be consuming more seafood, bread, and butter whereas China features higher consumption of rice and meat products; Turkey is consuming more meat and eggs. The study closes with a set of recommendations for the society and future research.

Keywords: China; Coronavirus; Food consumption; Inter-cultural studies; Meal habits; Nutrition; Portugal; Turkey.