Transformation in culinary behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic: In-depth interviews with food gatekeepers in urban India.

Citation: Menon, L., Choudhury, D.R., Ronto, R., Sengupta, R., Kansal, S., & Rathi, N. (2022). Transformation in culinary behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic: In-depth interviews with food gatekeepers in urban India. Appetite, 105948.

 
 
Short Brief:
The present qualitative study provides first-hand information about the factors influencing dietary modifications and changes in culinary behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic in urban India. The study included 34 female household food gatekeepers from Mumbai, India. Template Analysis Technique was used to generate themes and sub-themes from the interview data.  A number of themes were identified. These included increased household cooking, food-related activities shared amongst family members, increase in culinary experiments, adopting the meal planning skills, reduced visits to the supermarkets and shift to online shopping, shortage of essential food items, bulk buying, reduced intake of outside food, increased variety of home-cooked meals, increase in snacking and overall food intake and increase in family meal episodes. Overall, both positive and negative food-related behaviours emerged in urban households during the pandemic led lockdowns.
 

Corresponding Author: Dr. Neha Rathi, Malaviya Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University

 

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