Malleability of food values amid the COVID-19 pandemic

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.