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.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected many aspects of people’s daily life activities
Following Tonsor and Lusk (2020) and Ellison et al (2021), it explores whether food values are stable or change when people are exposed to large shocks such the COVID-19 pandemic
It investigates whether shifts in food values differ across sociodemographic groups, and third, it examines whether shifts in food values are associated with changes in purchasing and consumption behaviour during the pandemic
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected many aspects of people’s daily life activities. In the USA, statewide stay-at-home and lockdown orders were in place in the vast majority of member states in the first few months of the pandemic These directives have impacted US households in several ways (Holmes et al, 2020), including job losses. Few Black Swan events have affected western societies and their food markets—for example, the 2003 North American bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis, the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic None of these events have caused the shutdown of entire sectors of the economy or led to drastic changes in lifestyles that are nearly comparable to those induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper contributes to this literature by conducting a survey in which respondents were asked to report if their purchases of specific food products increased, decreased or remained unchanged during the lockdown period using 5-point Likert scales
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