The COVID-19 Impact on Food Consumption Patterns

Author:
Matej Petković, Barbara Koroušić Seljak, Dragi Kocev

By analyzing a large corpus of recipes using an information extraction method for extracting ingredients, we discovered interesting eating patterns that change during the COVID-19 pandemic. The users increased relatively the consumption of "Legumes and their fruits”, "Pancakes and tortillas", "Soups", "Dough", "Stone fruit", "Cakes” and "Beef” during the first lockdown. On the contrary, the users decreased the consumption of "Perch (red fish)", "Cereals, flakes and seeds", "Viticulture" and for those annotated "Citrus", "Pork", "Water" and "Seafood". Results showed that we had more time during the pandemic to prepare homemade dishes, which are mostly less salted and sweetened than industrial products.