News About COVID-19 Spread Made Dining out More Appetizing

One of the best ways to assuage public concerns over eating in public was to provide them with more information about the current state of COVID-19 spread, according to a study published in Agricultural Economics.

Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Restaurant Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic was marked by uncertainty. As public places slowly began reopening, people had to grapple with the risk they were willing to take for activities like in-person shopping or eating at a restaurant. Restaurants around the world were hard-hit when the pandemic struck as their business model relies almost entirely on people being able to come to sit down and eat a meal. According to data from the National Restaurant Association, 90,000 restaurants closed due to the pandemic in the U.S. alone.

The restaurant system was one of the most sensitive segments of the economy to the pandemic. Looking at data from a restaurant chain in China, researchers found that those located in cities where local regulations required COVID-19 tracking recovered faster than those in areas that did not.

While national increases in COVID-19 cases did have an overall negative impact on the number of transactions in restaurants, having access to local infection rate data made customers more comfortable going out to eat.

How Did Food Consumption Behavior Changed During The COVID‐19?

Researchers looked at data from 87 restaurants in 10 Chinese cities between December 1, 2019, and March 27, 2020. This period captures the onset of the pandemic and China’s “Great Lockdown” policy through restaurants’ gradual reopening in February and March.

Restaurants in areas where this information was available saw 25%-35% more transactions. When you have a risk like that, providing information gave more comfort to consumers than leaving consumers in the dark.

This study was specifically focused on a snapshot of the pandemic, the results provide a broader picture of consumer behavior during any crisis marked by risk and uncertainty. They also discovered that during the active periods of COVID-19 infections, intake of sugar, sodium, and fat increased by 0.1 to 1%.

But, once COVID-19 infections were under control, people were ordering healthier foods as they learned more about the importance of nutrient intake in the context of the public health crisis.

Advertisement

The percentage of protein in food ordered during this period increased by 8% and the amount of fiber increased by 1%. At the same time, the amount of fat, sugar, and sodium decreased by 7 to 16%.

This shows that learning about the importance of nutrition can overcome the impact of emotional eating and economic insecurity that characterized the early period of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Advertisement

These findings point to how policymakers can use learning tactics to improve individuals’ awareness of more permanent preventative health behaviors, leading to a healthier society altogether.

The long-run positive health impacts of adopting preventive health behaviors may mitigate the negative impact of health shocks in society and are likely to outlive the pandemic itself.



Source-Eurekalert