The Covid-19 pandemic and food consumption at home and away: An exploratory study of English households

Viachaslau Filimonau, Le Hong Vi, Sean Beer and Vladimir A. Ermolaev

Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 2022, vol. 82, issue PA

Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has changed attitudes of English households towards food consumption at home and when eating out. Little academic research has however examined the scope and the scale of these changes, especially in the context of foodservice provision. This mixed methods study explores the effect of Covid-19 on food consumption in English households at home and away. It reveals increased frequency and variety of cooking during lockdown as a driver of household food wastage. The study demonstrates public hesitance towards eating out post-Covid-19. Foodservice providers are expected to re-design their business settings and adopt protective and preventative measures, such as frequent cleaning and routine health checks, to encourage visitation. After the pandemic, increased preference towards consuming (more) sustainable food at home, but not when eating out, is established. These insights can aid grocery and foodservice providers in offering more tailored products and services in a post-pandemic future.

Keywords: Covid-19; Household food consumption; Grocery retail; Restaurant; Healthy eating; Food waste (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038012121001178
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceps:v:82:y:2022:i:pa:s0038012121001178

DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2021.101125

Access Statistics for this article

Socio-Economic Planning Sciences is currently edited by Barnett R. Parker

More articles in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().