Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food consumption: Preliminary insights from the gulf cooperation council region

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, measures to contain it—such as home confinement, social isolation, closure of businesses and educational institutions, and remote work—have affected everyday life. Further, some voices were worried about these measures’ psychological, social, and economic impacts...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tarek Ben Hassen, Hamid El Bilali
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2022-12-01
Series:Cogent Social Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311886.2022.2064608
_version_ 1818024424975106048
author Tarek Ben Hassen
Hamid El Bilali
author_facet Tarek Ben Hassen
Hamid El Bilali
author_sort Tarek Ben Hassen
collection DOAJ
description As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, measures to contain it—such as home confinement, social isolation, closure of businesses and educational institutions, and remote work—have affected everyday life. Further, some voices were worried about these measures’ psychological, social, and economic impacts on food-related activities and practices. These impacts are presumably context-specific and differ from one region to another. In this regard, the example of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, a group of high-income and food-secure countries, is particularly intriguing. This narrative review aims to explore the psychological and socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food-related activities (e.g., food procurement, preparation, and consumption) in the GCC area. The review suggests that while the changes in lifestyle brought on by the lockdown/quarantine measures generated concern, boredom, sadness, stress, and anxiety also in the GCC region, the impacts of these negative emotions on food-related activities have been rather limited. Indeed, the pandemic impacted the consumer-food interaction but did not boost panic buying and hoarding in the region. Furthermore, the high purchasing power of the population mitigated the economic impacts of the pandemic and its adverse effects on food and nutrition security in the region.
first_indexed 2024-12-10T04:00:00Z
format Article
id doaj.art-958a827106c04606bb6035f7771a357d
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2331-1886
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-10T04:00:00Z
publishDate 2022-12-01
publisher Taylor & Francis Group
record_format Article
series Cogent Social Sciences
spelling doaj.art-958a827106c04606bb6035f7771a357d2022-12-22T02:03:00ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Social Sciences2331-18862022-12-018110.1080/23311886.2022.2064608Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food consumption: Preliminary insights from the gulf cooperation council regionTarek Ben Hassen0Hamid El Bilali1Program of Policy, Planning, and Development, Department of International Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, 2713 Doha, Qatar;International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (Ciheam-bari), Via Ceglie 9, 70010 Valenzano (Bari), Italy;As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, measures to contain it—such as home confinement, social isolation, closure of businesses and educational institutions, and remote work—have affected everyday life. Further, some voices were worried about these measures’ psychological, social, and economic impacts on food-related activities and practices. These impacts are presumably context-specific and differ from one region to another. In this regard, the example of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, a group of high-income and food-secure countries, is particularly intriguing. This narrative review aims to explore the psychological and socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food-related activities (e.g., food procurement, preparation, and consumption) in the GCC area. The review suggests that while the changes in lifestyle brought on by the lockdown/quarantine measures generated concern, boredom, sadness, stress, and anxiety also in the GCC region, the impacts of these negative emotions on food-related activities have been rather limited. Indeed, the pandemic impacted the consumer-food interaction but did not boost panic buying and hoarding in the region. Furthermore, the high purchasing power of the population mitigated the economic impacts of the pandemic and its adverse effects on food and nutrition security in the region.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311886.2022.2064608COVID-19food behaviorfood consumptiondietsfood policyGCC
spellingShingle Tarek Ben Hassen
Hamid El Bilali
Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food consumption: Preliminary insights from the gulf cooperation council region
Cogent Social Sciences
COVID-19
food behavior
food consumption
diets
food policy
GCC
title Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food consumption: Preliminary insights from the gulf cooperation council region
title_full Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food consumption: Preliminary insights from the gulf cooperation council region
title_fullStr Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food consumption: Preliminary insights from the gulf cooperation council region
title_full_unstemmed Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food consumption: Preliminary insights from the gulf cooperation council region
title_short Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and food consumption: Preliminary insights from the gulf cooperation council region
title_sort impacts of the covid 19 pandemic on food security and food consumption preliminary insights from the gulf cooperation council region
topic COVID-19
food behavior
food consumption
diets
food policy
GCC
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311886.2022.2064608
work_keys_str_mv AT tarekbenhassen impactsofthecovid19pandemiconfoodsecurityandfoodconsumptionpreliminaryinsightsfromthegulfcooperationcouncilregion
AT hamidelbilali impactsofthecovid19pandemiconfoodsecurityandfoodconsumptionpreliminaryinsightsfromthegulfcooperationcouncilregion