Changing Food Patterns during the Pandemic: Exploring the Role of Household Dynamics and Income Stabilization Strategies

COVID-19 still looms as the largest risk to the agriculture, energy, and health sectors, threatening sustainable global economic development. The literature shows that the COVID-19 pandemic can divert governments' attention away from climate change, renewable energy, and food security challenges that are necessary to address for sustainable economic growth. The COVID-19 pandemic has consistently influenced environmental behaviors, as it has primarily decreased income levels and disrupted food systems worldwide. This study examined the impacts of COVID-19 on food consumption patterns, food diversity, and income challenges and explored the factors affecting food consumption patterns during the pandemic. The data collected through an online survey from 1537 Chinese households were analyzed through a paired t-test, a mixed-design ANOVA, and a logistic regression analysis. The results revealed that the consumption of the majority of individual food commodities decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the individual food items, the consumption of pork witnessed the greatest decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the normal period. The decrease in food diversity was higher for the households whose income was affected compared to the households whose income was not affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the consumption quantities of various food groups declined more for highly income-affected households than for medium and slightly affected households during the pandemic. Households that adopted a dissaving income-stabilizing strategy were 47% points more likely to maintain their food consumption patterns during the pandemic. Farmers were 17% points and 19% points less likely to suffer worsened food consumption compared to self-employed and wage workers, respectively, during the pandemic. Thus, self-production methods such as kitchen gardening can assist households to maintain and improve their consumption of food commodities during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 by the authors.

Survival in Pandemic Times: Managing Energy Efficiency, Food Diversity, and Sustainable Practices of Nutrient Intake Amid COVID-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an economic crisis and health emergency, threatening energy efficiency consumption, sustainable food diversity, and households’ nutrition security. The literature documented that environmental threats can divert attention from renewable energy and food security challenges that affect humans’ environmental behaviors. The COVID-19 crisis has consistently influenced environmental behaviors, as it primarily decreased income and disrupted food systems worldwide. This study investigated the COVID-19 consequences on household income, sustainable food diversity, sustainable energy consumption, and nutritional security challenges. The study used a self-structured online survey due to non-pharmaceutical restrictions and collected data from 728 households. The investigators applied t-test and logit regression to analyze the data for drawing results. Descriptive statistics show that COVID-19 has adversely affected the income of more than two-thirds (67%) of households. The pandemic has influenced households’ food consumption, energy, and dietary patterns to safeguard their income. The t-test analysis indicated that households’ food diversity and energy consumption significantly declined during the pandemic, and households consumed low-diversified food to meet their dietary needs more than twofold compared to pre-pandemic levels. The results showed that all nutrient consumption remained considerably lower in the COVID-19. Cereals are the primary source of daily dietary needs, accounting for over two-thirds of total energy and half of the nutrient consumption amid COVID-19. The share of vegetables and fruits in household energy consumption dropped by 40 and 30%. Results exhibited that increasing monthly income was inversely associated with worsening food diversity and intake with energy efficiency. Compared with farmers and salaried employment, wage earners were 0.15 and 0.28 times more likely to experience a decline in consuming food diversity. Medium and large households were 1.95 times and 2.64 times more likely than small, to experience decreased food diversity consumption. Launching a nutrition-sensitive program will help minimize the COVID-19 impacts on energy consumption, food diversity, and nutritional security for low-income individuals. This survey relied on the recall ability of the households for the consumed quantities of food commodities, which may lack accuracy. Longitudinal studies employing probability sampling with larger samples can verify this study’s insightful results. Copyright © 2022 Geng, Haq, Abbas, Ye, Shahbaz, Abbas and Cai.

Gendered impact of COVID-19 on consumption of perishable and nonperishable food commodities in Pakistan

Purpose Covid-19 is a serious threat to the dietary quality of vulnerable communities in developing countries with limited economic resources. This study explored the implications of COVID-19 on daily dietary behavior and food consumption patterns of perishable and nonperishable food commodities based on the gender of household headship in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected through an online survey using the snowball sampling technique. A mixed design ANOVA, an independent t-test and a multivariate probit model were used to look at the data from 417 female-headed households and 1,131 male-headed households that were surveyed in the study. Findings Female-headed households experienced a greater decrease in their daily intake of perishable and nonperishable food commodities compared to male-headed households during COVID-19. The decrease in consumption of perishable food commodities was greater than the decrease in nonperishable food commodities for both female-headed and male-headed households. Female-headed households witnessed the largest decrease in daily intake of animal-derived foods, while male-headed households observed the highest diminution in consumption of fruits. Female-headed households and male-headed households reduced their consumption of perishable food commodities by more than one-third and one-fifth, respectively. Households with lower socioeconomic status reported higher reductions in their daily intakes of food commodities compared to households with higher socioeconomic status. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional nature of the collected data does not allow the development of a causal relationship between COVID-19 implications and food consumption changes in daily dietary patterns. Originality/value Dietary and consumption patterns of populations are changing worldwide due to COVID-19. There is no study to assist policymakers in determining how COVID-19 is affecting the daily food consumption patterns of perishable and non-perishable food commodities of households based on gender in the developing world.

Implications of COVID-19 related non-pharmaceutical measures on household livelihood and food security in Pakistan

Purpose Coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19 is a health and humanitarian disaster threatening the livelihood and nutritional security of the people globally. This study examined the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic-related non-pharmaceutical measures on households' livelihood and food security in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach Data collected through an online survey from 712 households were analyzed through descriptive statistics, t-test, and binary logit model. Findings More than 71% of the total households asserted that COVID-19 had affected their livelihoods negatively. Results revealed that food insecurity among households had increased more than two folds during one year of the COVID-19 compared to the pre-pandemic period. Moreover, the number of households in food insecure and severely food insecure groups had also increased significantly during the pandemic. Increasing monthly income was negatively associated with the COVID-19 induced food security and livelihood shocks implying that households with lower monthly income were likely to suffer more from the COVID-19. Households having agriculture as their main source of livelihood were 35 percentage points less likely to suffer the negative effects of the pandemic compared to wage earners. Wage-earners were 29 percentage points more likely to suffer worsened food security than salaried persons during the COVID-19 period. A large proportion of the households were forced to change their nutritional patterns to negate the adverse consequence of the pandemic on their livelihood and food security. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional nature of the collected data does not allow developing a causal relationship between COVID-19 implications and the food security of the households. Originality/value The pandemic has affected every sphere of life in developing countries but there is no study to assist the policymakers that how to minimize the impacts of the COVID-19 on the food security of households. Therefore, the study will fill this gap in the literature and help policymakers in developing countries to develop strategies to lessen the impact of the pandemic on food security.

Gender-based implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on household diet diversity and nutritional security in Pakistan

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has profound implications on the food and nutritional security of millions of households. The study assessed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on diet diversity, calorie consumption and intake of essential nutrients based on the gender of the households. Design/methodology/approach: Mixed-design ANOVA and logistic regression were used to analyze the collected data from 260 female- and 463 male-headed households through an online survey in Pakistan. Findings: The outcomes revealed that the diet diversity of female households was affected more due to the COVID-19 compared to male households. The decline in daily nutrients' (protein, phosphorus, zinc, iron and iodine) intake during the COVID-19 was also greater for female-headed households than male-headed households. The share of all food groups in daily calorie and nutrient provision decreased significantly during the COVID-19 for both types of households. The share of meat and meat products declined more for female-headed households compared to male-headed households. The share of perishable commodities in calorie provision to female and male households decreased 2% during the COVID-19 compared to the normal period. Small- and medium-sized female and male households were less likely to experience worsened diet diversity than large-sized households during the COVID-19. Low-income compared to medium- and high-income female and male households were more likely to report declined food diversity during the COVID-19. Research limitations/implications: The data used in this study were collected through an online survey due to public health measures imposed in the country. Originality/value: Despite the emergence of literature on the implications of the pandemic on food security, the studies related to the gender-based impacts of COVID-19 on diet diversity and nutritional intakes of necessary nutrients are still non-existent. The current study will add to the literature by filling this gap. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.