Does the COVID-19 pandemic change food consumption and shopping patterns? Evidence from Indonesian urban households

Abstract

PurposeThis study investigate changes in food consumption and shopping patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected cross-sectional data from 507 households in three Indonesian cities, i.e. Surabaya, Surakarta and Bogor, via an online survey and analysed the data using non-parametric tests: the U-Mann Whitney test, the Kruskal–Wallis test and the ordered probit model.FindingsThe results indicate that, during the pandemic, people 1) avoided eating out in a restaurant or cafeteria to reduce transmission risk and cooked at home instead; 2) stocked food products to minimise store visits; 3) chose a healthier diet including fruits and vegetables; and 4) wasted less food. These new trends could be linked to the socio-demographics, i.e. age, education, marital status and income level.Originality/valueThis research was conducted during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia between July and August 2021, so the findings could inform food-related long-term policymaking and responses to a crisis.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2021-0666.

The Impact of the Nutritional Knowledge of Polish Students Living Outside the Family Home on Consumer Behavior and Food Waste

“…Many young people tend to pay attention to the expiration date on the package [ 37 ]; however, as our study showed, they throw away a lot of food, especially people without nutritional knowledge. It is estimated that young people throw away between 250 and 2000 grams of food waste in the trash [ 30 , 34 ]. Among the reasons for food waste among young consumers and students (including those with nutritional knowledge) are exceeding the best-before date, storing for too long, poor product quality, and preparing too large portions of meals [ 21 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 63 ].…”

“…A chi-square test was used [ 24 , 29 ] to determine the effect of nutrition knowledge compared on performing household activities and shopping behavior with students from other majors. The Mann–Whitney U test was used [ 29 , 30 , 81 ] to compare the two study groups in terms of home and grocery-store activities and frequency of discarded food items. In both study groups, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient [ 29 , 82 ] was calculated between frequency and amount of shopping and frequency of discarded food items among students with nutrition knowledge, as well as students from other majors.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has affected consumer shopping habits [ 23 , 29 , 30 ]. They were more likely to shop on their own or give a shopping list to a loved one.…”

“…Despite planning their purchases and making a list, exceeding the expiration date was the main reason for throwing away food. On the positive side, there was a reduction in the amount of discarded food products [ 23 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. More consumers have begun to use excess food for freezing, further processing, or animals [ 35 ].…”

Impact of COVID-19’s supply and demand shocks on the household economy of tilapia smallholder farmer

“…In Indonesia, as shown by Toiba et al. (2022), COVID-19 has caused changes in consumer behavior, namely: (1) avoiding eating in restaurants and cafeterias to avoid being exposed to the virus and cooking more at home and (2) increasing food stocks and reducing walk to the store for shopping.…”