Malleability of food values amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Simone Cerroni, Rodolfo M. Nayga, Gioacchino Pappalardo, Wei Yang
Abstract
Abstract Food values are supposed to be stable. This paper tests this assumption by comparing food values before and during the coronavirus-19 pandemic. While the ranking of food values remains very similar, there are some interesting differences in the relative importance that consumers attached to food values before and during the pandemic. A substantial decrease in the importance that consumers attach to food safety was observed during the pandemic, while there was a moderate increase in the importance attached to taste, nutrition, appearance, convenience and origin. The changes in food values vary across sociodemographic groups. Implications of the results are discussed.
Topics & Concepts
PandemicCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)TasteRanking (information retrieval)2019-20 coronavirus outbreakSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)CoronavirusFood scienceBiologyMedicineVirologyOutbreakComputer sciencePathologyMachine learningDiseaseInfectious disease (medical specialty)Organic Food and AgricultureCultural Differences and ValuesCulinary Culture and Tourism