Food purchase behavior during Covid-19 pandemic

Covid-19 pandemic is increasingly a historical challenge that the world is called upon to face without prior preparation. In addition to an inevitable economic crisis due to the shutdown of many economic activities, the pandemic is causing important changes in the social habits of the populations all over the world, and it is very likely that some of these changes will persist until after the crisis. One of the aspects in which Covid-19 pandemic is causing major changes is in people’s food purchasing and consumption behavior due to the lockdown and social isolation directives as well as uncertainty about what will happen in the immediate future. Understanding food purchasing behaviour is certainly useful not only to understand how consumers’ behaviour changes and adapts during crisis periods but also to provide useful guidance in emergency management efforts. We are conducting a survey to learn about food purchasing and consumption behavior during Covid-19 pandemic in Italy which is one of the countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The goal of the survey is to understand how a pandemic like the novel coronavirus affects food purchasing and consumption behavior. The findings can help policy makers, communities and companies to better deal with similar crises in the future. Our research questions or hypotheses of interest are listed as follow:-Buying behaviors have changed since coronavirus epidemic began.-Attention about healthy aspects of food has increased since coronavirus epidemic began.-Attention of people to food waste has increased since the coronavirus epidemic began.-Daily habits have changed since the coronavirus epidemic began.-Socio-demographic and other personal characteristics could be related to consumers’ food purchasing behaviors during the coronavirus epidemic. The findings of this survey will assist in the advancement of knowledge of consumer food purchase behavior and can help policy makers, communities and companies in emergency management efforts. The survey results will become available to academic researchers, food companies, regulators as well as to the wider general public of consumers.