Exploration of COVID-19 impact on the dimensions of food safety and security: a perspective of societal issues with relief measures

Abstract

PurposeOutbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has created the catastrophic situation, it has crippled all the economic activities and seized off the operations of food supply chain (FSC). Disrupted FSC escalated the societal concerns related to food safety and security. The purpose of this study is to consolidate various issues, exploring the perspectives associated with the agricultural practices, food industries and society concerns related with the FSC performance system dynamics amid of COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachTo structure this work, a detailed research literature insight focussing on the key findings associated with the past disease outbreaks like influenza, avian flu, Ebola, bird flu, SARS, foot and mouth disease and ongoing phase of COVID-19, encompassing the perspective related with various agricultural and concerned supply chain practices is clustered. Furthermore, issues having relevancy with the notion of this work, sourced from platforms of print and electronic media have been incorporated to ground the reality associated with the impacts, for better visualisation of the perspectives.FindingsThis study outlays the key findings which are relevant with the past pandemic outbreaks from the core of the research literature. It details the impact of the current COVID-19 scenario on the various FSC operations, focussing on dimensions allied with the industry, economic and society concerns. For the same, to mitigate the effects, relief measures focussing on the short- and long-term perspectives have been incorporated. Steps ramped up by the Government of India (GOI) to safeguard masses from the threat of food security, accelerate pace of the FSC operations and upscale operating capacities of the industries and agriculture practices have incorporated.Research limitations/implicationsPresented work is persuaded amid of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions hence it outlays the theoretical perspectives only. But, these perspectives portray the ongoing scenario's impacts, extending its implication to the people coming from the industry and academia background. This study can felicitate the government bodies to make them familiar with the various impacts which indented the FSCs, food industries and added woes to the society concerns.Originality/valueIndia is the second largest populated nation of the world, and outspread of the COVID-19 has capsized the FSCs and raised the various instances, making population vulnerable to the threats of food insecurity. This study encompasses effect of the FSC disruption by incorporating its effect on the food industries practices, societal issues and extending possible relief measures to restructure the FSC dynamics. As of now, study focussing on the Indian FSC concerns, detailing of impacts due to pandemic outbreak, relief measures to sail out of the hard times are not available.

Food shopping, preparation and consumption practices in times of COVID-19: case of Lebanon

“…Moreover, the pandemic triggered a global economic crisis, the deepest recession since the Second World War, increasing unemployment and poverty worldwide (International Monetary Fund, 2020). This recession is likely to severely reduce people's purchasing power, impacting food accessibility and driving up food insecurity, which could easily affect the overall diet quality (FSIN, 2020;Inegbedion, 2020;Sharma et al, 2021;Swinnen and McDermott, 2020). With reduced purchasing power, many consumers struggle to maintain a stable calorie intake by converting from more costly and healthier food items (e.g.…”

“…Although the immediate effect of the pandemic on primary agriculture may be minimal, a growing body of evidence shows that COVID-19 has also disrupted food systems, revealing their vulnerabilities Food consumption practices in times of to shocks and crisis (Ahmed et al, 2020;Altieri and Nicholls, 2020;B en e, 2020;Galanakis, 2020;Heck et al, 2020;Rippin et al, 2020;Savary et al, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a disastrous crisis, disrupted all economic activities and halted food supply chain (FSC) operations from producers to processors and consumers at different levels, leading to an impending global food emergency (Sharma et al, 2021). Food became ever more central to the customers' lives during the pandemic.…”

Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on prices of potato and onion in metropolitan cities of India

“…Digital platforms like Amazon, Bigbasket etc. use their own logistics resolving transport issues as well as they manage reasonable prices even at the time of such crises (Mahajan and Tomar, 2020; Sharma et al , 2021). Innovations like mobile vegetables trucks were accepted widely, particularly in Kerala that gave easy access to fruits and vegetables in their doorsteps at reasonable prices.…”

“…This lockdown showed a huge impact on all agricultural commodity prices especially that of vegetables. It was because of non-availability of transport for producers and suspension of big vegetables markets like Lasalgaon in Maharashtra, India (Bose and Pandey, 2020; Sharma et al , 2021; Cariappa et al , 2021b). In India, nearly 86% farmers belong to category of small and marginal farmers who have been hit hardest by this lockdown.…”

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Information on Sectoral Stock Performance during Lockdown and New-Normal: An Evidence from Indonesia Stock Exchange

“…The impact of a crisis is not bound by time and place, including in the case of Covid-19, the shift in consumer behavior is often also called "panic buying" and "Hoarding" (Hall, Prayag, Fieger & Dyason, 2020). Changes in consumer behavior result from an increase in the need for certain goods where there is a limited supply of these goods so that people try to get these goods as quickly as possible (Sharma et al, 2021). In addition to these behavioral changes, other changes in people's consumption behavior also occurred where some people who previously preferred to eat at restaurants now prefer to eat food at home and cook the dishes themselves for health reasons.…”