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African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development
Rural Outreach Program
ISSN: 1684-5358 EISSN: 1684-5358
Vol. 21, No. 6, 2021, pp. 18154-18169
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Bioline Code: nd21066
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge
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African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, Vol. 21, No. 6, 2021, pp. 18154-18169
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IMPACT OF COVID-19 LOCKDOWN ON FOOD ADDICTION IN INDIA
Das, A; Bharti, N & Malik, S
Abstract
Food addiction (FA) has a long-term impact on the health of individuals. This study
analyses the changes in FA and related behaviour in India in the wake of lockdown
which started on 25th March 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This paper
provides insight into the food consumption behavior of various segments of the
population during this lockdown. It offers some new insights in this regard by
establishing the relationship between a temporary pause in the consumption of
palatable food and FA. This study was conducted between March and May 2020 in two
stages. First, a quantitative study used the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) to
identify food addicts from a sample of 150 respondents. In the second stage, in-depth
telephone interviews were conducted with the food addicts; the responses were
recorded, transcribed, and analysed to ascertain the changes in their overall
consumption and addiction behavior towards palatable foods. This was done by
conducting a thematic analysis with the help of the NVivo software where various tools
like word cloud and cluster analysis were used. This study found that COVID-19
restrictions had significantly brought down the addiction to palatable food in India as
the regular consumption chain had got broken during the lockdown. The consumption
of palatable food is expected to remain low for a brief period after the lockdown due to
hygiene issues like improper or lack of sanitization and cleanliness. However, in the
long-run, the consumption of palatable food is expected to rise in India owing to its
growing population, modernisation, increasing disposable income and changes in
customer preferences. These findings have significant implications for the food,
packaging and health industries as the changes in customer behavior will certainly
impact them, and they need to duly change their strategy to adapt to the changes
promptly.
Keywords
Food; addiction; Yale Food Addiction Scale; lockdown; nutrition
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