Food and COVID-19

Summary

COVID-19 is disrupting food supply and demand in complex ways and links the health crisis with a food one. The SARS-CoV-2 virus represents a steady danger to food security. Globally, the biggest problem for the food sector is associated with the COVID-19 measures and the necessity of arrangements in the sector to answer those measures. Another challenge is the need to find alternative markets for products related to changed consumption habits in response to COVID-19.

To stop or control the spread of coronavirus infection, different measures have been undertaken at the governmental level. Changes in consumers’ demands as well as changes in their eating habits led to the loss of various food processing sectors like dairy, sugar, meat, and poultry. The ‘Strategic preparedness and response plan’ by WHO predicted the health measures that all countries had to include as an answer to COVID 19 pandemic. At present, there is no proof of SARS-CoV-2, or any other respiratory infection, to be delivered by food or food packaging. However, standard cleaning and sanitizing procedures for SARS-CoV-2, physical distancing, involvement of food business operators and food workers to mind global food safety standards and ensure coherency in the quality and safety of food products are needed.

Key words/phrases: food business, food supply service, food processing, post-pandemic

1. Introduction

Globally, enough food is available but COVID-19 is disrupting supply and demand in complex ways and the health crisis is linked with a food crisis. In addition, the agriculture sector of the economy is assigned by most countries to be excluded from the business restrictive and lockdown measures. The direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary agriculture has been limited for many countries since the illness does not influence the natural resources on which food production is based. However, the virus represents a steady danger to food security and livelihoods in the countries with lower life standards, where agricultural production systems are with less capacity to cope with such a strong macroeconomic shock.
As food is a basic need, the level of food demand should be influenced less by the crisis than the demand for other goods and services. However, a major change in the structure of demand appeared, linked with strong requirements from restaurants, hotels, and catering services, the closure of open markets, and the surge in demand from supermarkets. Currently, there are indications that businesses along the food chain are already adapting to the changes in demand, using different approaches:
-Changing production lines,
-Enhancing their potential to manage larger catalogues,
-Organizing e-commerce through the use of online platforms,
-Exploiting direct delivery schemes,
-Hiring staff on temporary positions.
Globally, and especially in the poorest countries, the biggest problem for the food sector is associated with the COVID-19 measures and the necessity of arrangements in the sector to answer those measures (which may increase costs). Another challenge is the need to find alternative markets for products related to changed consumption habits in response to COVID-19. How do all these changes become evident within the frame of the food system?

2. Pandemic impact on the food sector

To stop or control the spread of coronavirus infection, different measures have been undertaken at the governmental level. Changes in consumers’ demands as well as changes in their eating habits led to the loss of various food processing sectors like dairy, sugar, meat, and poultry [7].
-During the period of the application of safety measures, different countries in the world involved strong lockdown regulations that influence the dairy industry. The reduction in the demand for dairy products caused a decrease in their price and export level. [37]. This reflects as well the socio-economic status of the dairy workers.
-The operation of the sugar processing industry was also restricted, due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The sugar import and export were strongly influenced, which caused a serious decline in production. This impacted also the production of alcohol. The negative influence on sugar processing industries was linked to the shortage of suitable packaging materials. Such a negative impact was observed also on the dairy industry.
Besides the dairy and sugar industries, the same effect is encountered in the meat, poultry, and seafood industry. Meat and poultry processing industries are particularly vulnerable because of their critical infrastructure in the food sector. The increase of the Corona virus-positive cases (and deaths) in the production facilities of the meat and poultry industry resulted in a full shutdown of plants. According to data from May 2020,, twenty industrial plants in the USA were closed, among which Tyson foods, Plant in Waterloo, Lowa, other plants like JBS, Sanderson farms, Hormel foods, National beef, and Smithfield food after the reports of COVID -19 infections [11]. These alarming data raise panic about the consumption of meat and seafood during the pandemic. For this reason, WHO recommended a diminution of the visits to the live markets and meat consumption of raw or undercooked animal products. To manage the pandemic, hygienic measures for meat production and processing equipment for the workers were implemented. Additionally, training of butchers, and educating them about clean meat production practices, processing, packaging, and quality assurance is promoted. [43].

2.1. Pandemic effects on food and agriculture

The ‘Strategic preparedness and response plan’ by WHO [44] predicted the health measures that all countries had to include as an answer to COVID 19 pandemic. The WHO showed the knowledge adopted about the virus and transformed this information to build a strategic action plan to guide national and international partners to prepare national and regional operational plans. These plans define priority steps and actions in eight major topics:

• Coordinating, planning, and monitoring at the country level;
•  Communication of risk and community participation;
•  Observation, quick-response teams, and case investigation;
•  Entry points;
•  National laboratories;
•  Prevention and control of infection;
•  Situation management;
•  Operational support and logistics.

The fulfillment of these measures is linked with the cut of workplaces and educational institutions, as well as temporary limitation of travel and social meetings. Flexible working from home and online meetings appeared as standard practices today. However, people working in the food industry who have no opportunity for home office performance need to keep the typical actions [29, 18, 45]. As a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis, a solution for food workers was prepared to furnish guidance for a succession of operations in the food processing hardware and COVID-19 virus management in the food industry. The plan discusses control requirements for cleaning, sanitation, disinfection of equipment, screening, and monitoring of people working with COVID-19, managing the ill workers, and use of educational programs for supervisors to cease the spread of coronavirus [8].

Each country in the world needs to find out the way, in which the COVID-19 outbreak can influence the manufacturing industry, and especially the food industry.

The food industry differs from others because it produces products important for daily life and if processors and distributors are infected, all people are at risk [41]. Besides, during pandemics, the food industry is a very important economic branch, as it meets various challenges compared to other sectors, which are not responsible for daily life like tourism and aviation among the others. Currently, due to COVID 19 outbreak, some food companies are obliged to work harder to meet the growing demands of the retailers, while others are facing challenges because of the drop-down in their income. These impose even needs for closing down (temporally or finally) businesses. The current pandemic has shown that companies with a scope of activity within different businesses are closely connected all over the world [11, 37]. Regardless of which sub-branch we are talking about, a major concern of the food companies is:

• To preserve their employees’ health
• To provide a sufficient workforce for enabling normal production cycles and avoiding shortages due to sick or unwilling to work because of coronavirus fear employees.

This means that it is of vital importance to defend and maintain the health of people who are in the food supply during this time of crisis [18, 44].

Holding the distribution chain actively operating with supply management strategies is convenient to answer consumer demands [12]. This process is maintained by the active participation and contribution of all stakeholders by providing the consumers a confidence in food safety and security [18, 44]. During a time of crisis, food security is linked with consumers’ access to food rather than food availability [31]. Generally, consumers are not aware too much regarding the manner of food provision on their tables. However, concerns about food safety during the global pandemic make sense for the huge infrastructure and workforce amenable to forming a safe and reliable food supply in the world. When this global crisis has begun, consumers’ needs for food have raised and some store shelves have been for the time being deserted, and excess purchases of essential products have been realized.

Regardless worldwide scale of the pandemic, up to now COVID-9 was not reported to be diffused through food consumption. Hence, as noted by the European Food Safety Authority, there is no data indicating risk to public health related to COVID-19 [16]. Nevertheless, for the infections that have been seen in Xinfandi Market in China, caused by the processing of salmon, it can be decided that the risk for COVID 19 transmission through foods is lower than the comprehended risk. Thinking about the period for survival of SARS-CoV-2 in different materials such as plastic, steel, or cardboard, it is feasible that animal tissues (meat, fish, or poultry) might be considered a steady source for foodborne disease transmission. Food business operators’ hygiene control is intended to cease contamination of food by any pathogen, and in this way – to stop COVID-19 transmission by the foods they are responsible for [3, 10, 15, 32]. It is noted in previous outbreaks that foods are not a source of diffusion of coronaviruses like MERS and SARS-CoV because of the acidic pH of the stomach (pH < 3.5). however, some cooking and eating manners can cause the transmission of the coronavirus from animals to humans [33].

To resume, several problems are determined in the food industry and the food supply chain during the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic and the policy responses adopted to address it have affected food systems from the global to the local level. There are many different impacts of the pandemic and pandemic responses on the world’s food systems. Among the major one, we can list the following:

• Lost incomes: the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the food security is due mainly to the lost incomes. The World Bank reported a global economy shrank by 5 percent in 2020, with the greatest burden borne by poor people. For instance, the restrictions on global travel and cargo put into place to stop the spread of the virus represented a larger economic cost for poor countries than their own pandemic restrictions. The limitation of the people’s mobility across borders and lockdowns is the reason for the shortages of the labor market for agriculture in many countries, especially those that need peak seasonal labor claims or labor-intensive production. For instance, newly performed travel bans within the European Union, as well as the closure of the Schengen Area, have significantly reduced the available workforce for the fruit and vegetable sector in several European countries.
• Disruption of food supply chains: the food supply chains were disrupted by labor restrictions and falling demand. However, impacts varied along the value chains and between countries and commodities.
• Food insecurity and nutrition losses: Food safety measures must be put into focus to prevent the transmission of coronavirus among producers, retailers, and consumers. The concerns for food security have risen, linked to lockdown restrictions. The impacts of rising poverty and abridged livelihoods are reflected in decreasing diet quality and rising the levels of food insecurity.In addition, in time of pandemics, people need to follow a healthy diet to self-prevent and boost the immune system. This is directly related to the increase in the need for functional foods, containing bioactive ingredients [32].

Food sustainability; magnification of shortcomings and difference: Food sustainability problems have emerged in the COVID-19 pandemic reality [20]. The pandemic proved once again the vulnerability of the poor and other disadvantaged groups of people.

2.2. Guidance for preventing COVID-19 influence on food businesses

Most of the well-known organizations such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), European Commission (EC), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Food Information Council (IFIC), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Labour Organization (ILO), International Trade Centre (ITC), The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and World Health Organization (WHO) are engaged with the provision of guidance for coping with the recent challenges for the food supply chain imposed by COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is an unprecedented threat to the human population and represents generally a risk to public health. It represents also such a hazard for the occupational safety of workers in any type of business or industry where persons are working in a close relationship. Current data are pointing out that SARS-CoV-2 itself is not accepted as a direct food safety hazard. A lot of countries are pursuing the WHO advice concerning the involvement of physical distancing steps like one to decrease the transmission of the disease [45]. This demand for physical distancing resulted in stopping the activity of many businesses and schools and pose limitations on travel and social events. As a result, some home-working people, teleworking, and such providing online or Internet discussions and meetings currently become a reality in comparison to this practice before the pandemic. Meanwhile, a lot of food industry employees lack the chance for home-working and there is a necessity to proceed with their job in their usual working places.

Large outbreaks of COVID-19 have taken place among farmworkers and in food processing factories. This probably is linked to their working environments having insufficient physical space to ensure personal safety. In the light of this guidance, workers in the food industry comprise all people working in the food business that has contact with food or food surfaces. This comprises all people taking place physically in the food processing, packaging, or handling area. This personnel includes managers, cleaners, maintenance contractors, delivery workers, food inspectors, and others. Thus, a healthy and sufficient workforce is of special importance to keep effective supply chains.

It is also important that food businesses are obliged to consider current food regulations as well as any additional advice from competent authorities and measures that must be implemented linked to the pandemic. All these endeavors are basic to maintain trust and consumer confidence in the safety and availability of food.

2.3. Remote diffusion of COVID-19 through Food

Strangely, people can be infected with COVID-19 from food or food packaging [23, 30]. Up to date findings do not state that food or food packaging is a significant way for the diffusion of human respiratory illnesses, including SARS-CoV-2.

Primarily diffusion of COVID-19 is related to close contact among people through the respiratory way. It is released through droplets, and aerosols produced by actions like coughing, sneezing, shouting, singing, and speaking [43]. The produced respiratory droplets by an infected person can land on different surfaces. Coronaviruses are not able to propagate in food or on lifeless surfaces; they can only multiply in humans and certain animals. During long persistence in the environment, viruses can degrade and reduce their virulence. However, different research reports have visualized the stability of the SARS-CoV-2 kept on different surfaces. It is concluded that the virus can stay viable for up to 72 hours on plastic and stainless-steel surface, up to 4 hours on copper, and up to 24 hours on cardboard [42]. Other investigations evaluated the virus stability on different surfaces at different temperatures or via changing other important parameters [13]. All these findings enriched our perception of viral persistence and survival, which have been studied under laboratory conditions. These investigations have been performed in maintained humidity, temperature, and other factors. Therefore, the obtained data have to be accepted with precaution when evaluating virus stability under given conditions (cool or freezing), high humidity during food processing, as well as behavior in the transportation environment.

Thus, nevertheless the detection of the virus or the viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) in foods and food packaging, giving an indication about former contamination, there is no proof of SARS-CoV-2, or any other respiratory infection, to be delivered by food or food packaging. So, the viral contaminated food products or packaging is not considered real trouble for human health. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is sensitive to most commonly applied disinfectants and sanitizing agents used in the food processing environment.

2.4. Standard cleaning and sanitizing procedures for SARS-CoV-2 virus

In the light of the above-mentioned, the cleaning and sanitizing procedures for the SARS-CoV-2 virus are subjected to the ones, based on sanitizers/surface disinfectants, which are outlined in the manufacturers’ instructions for cleaning purposes.

Commonly, the alcohol-based disinfectants (ethanol, propan-2-ol, propan-1-ol) show major virulence reduction of enveloped viruses like SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, they should be effective at disinfecting the food processing environment.

WHO advocates the application of sanitizers with greater than 70 percent alcohol for adequate contact time for disinfection [44].

Regular disinfectants that contain active compounds, based on quaternary ammonium salts and chlorine, also exhibit viricidal properties and can be applied for sanitizing purposes.

The testing for SARS-CoV-2 in food processing facilities or on food packaging is an expensive procedure and compared to microbiological sampling, which verifies sanitation protocols, it is not of primary significance. Besides, it is time-consuming and does not aid in risk-based decision-making processes for consumer protection. This is the reason it not to be recommended.

The measures for disinfection/sanitizing should be risk-based and relevant to the level of expected workers’ exposure to SARS-CoV-2. In this context, in the places where SARS-CoV-2 is not circulating actively, it is enough to practice the procedures of the food safety management systems that are consistent with the situation. In case of an increase in the threat of COVID-19 infection in the community, the accepted prevention measures have to be expanded. In this latter case, there is a need to highlight measures necessary to control COVID-19 in food operations, to ensure the safety of the workers and the safety of the food supply. These measures should not compromise standard food safety controls and food safety management; rather they should supplement the ongoing food safety measures. As COVID-19 is a global pandemic, the virus occurrence can differ seriously within and between countries, and the measures taken by national and local public health authorities must be relevant to those local or national peculiarities and consequently, well-coordinated.

The following key considerations in the guidance materials of FAO/WHO must be taken into account [18, 43]:

• COVID-19 is not a foodborne disease. See the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods’ opinion on SARS-CoV-2 and its relationship to food safety [23];
• Businesses must undertake key measures recommended for COVID-19 and complete a COVID-19 Safety Plan and register as a COVID Safe business;
• Businesses need to review their operations and take into account some additional measures to be implemented to reduce the impact of COVID-19;

Businesses with good preparations and procedures in place can minimize the impact of an employee diagnosed with COVID-19.

2.5. Physical distancing

Physical distancing is very important to support the restriction of COVID-19 distribution. The probability of COVID-19 transmission decreases as the distance between individuals increases. Where an intracommunity spread is registered, all food businesses should respect physical distancing and follow the physical contact restrictions’ guidance as far as it is possible in practice. WHO maintains the distance between workers should be at least one meter (ca. three feet). The distance requirements may vary within countries and regions. Where the food manufacture procedures do not allow easily minding the distance requirements, employers need to consider some additional measures to be put in place for employees’ protection. In this respect, the control at the operational and structural level executed to reduce the transmission of the virus encompasses:

• Maintenance of a physical distance of at least one meter (three feet), or as given otherwise by authorities, between individuals;
• Organize workplaces along the processing line in a way that the food workers are not facing one another;
• Ensure enough place between workplaces; this may reflect negatively on the speed of the production lines
• Build-in physical barriers between individual workplaces;
• Assure better air exchange;
• Rearrange break times, where possible, to facilitate temporal distancing.
• Organize staff into working groups or teams to facilitate the reduction of the interactions between the groups;
• Establish various shifts to reduce the presence of a large number of workers in food business premises;
• Subject to cleaning and disinfection of all contact surfaces of general character and specialized equipment devices.
• Distribute written notices and provide explanations and training to staff to promote good hand hygiene, mask-wearing, and physical distancing.
• Encourage vaccination. Vaccines have proven to be effective to lower the severity of COVID-19 and reducing the risk of transmitting the disease. Enable all food workers to become vaccinated, if desired, by providing the necessary flexibility in shift schedule.

Support and mind good personal hygiene. Provide adequate sanitary facilities (soap and warm running water) to ensure that food workers thoroughly and frequently wash their hands. Use hand sanitizers as an additional, not replacing hand washing, measure.

2.6. Involvement of food business operators and food workers

Food Business Operators (FBOs) have to perform necessary corporate measures that are foreseen to keep the safety of their products and to protect their workers. For this reason, FBOs have to develop respective Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) linked with the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) principles to manage food safety risks and safeguard food contamination. If they are not projected particularly for protection from COVID-19 transmission, FSMS undertaken are those from prerequisite programs, including good hygiene practices. Such programs comprise:

• Cleaning and sanitation;
• Zoning of processing areas;
• Supplier control;
• Storage, distribution, and transport;
• Personal hygiene
• Fit for work assessments.

All these fundamental conditions and activities are obligatory for keeping a hygienic food processing environment. In case a food business possesses an FSMS and/or a HACCP body is organized, its personnel has to be involved in appropriate discussions and training to guarantee the minimization of any person-to-person spreading of COVID-19. The aim is to keep the integrity of the FSMS and the efficiency of HACCP measures. The departments in the food business that are liable for the selection and application of adequate measures, and consulting with public health authorities, if needed, are the ‘Occupational health’ and the ‘Human resources’ ones. Besides, the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene outlines a fundamental basis for the execution of key hygiene controls at each stage of the food processing, production, and marketing network to safeguard against food contamination [43]. Each FBO has to possess suitable plans to stop disease transmission along with the operations and to assure the consent with these measures to prevent workers from COVID-19 and to protect exposition to or transmission of the virus.

The plans for the prevention of disease transmission will involve the following measures [25, 42]:

• To foster workers to stay home in case they are ill;
• To introduce operational and structural controls to enlarge physical distancing between workers;
• To provide separation or barriers between workstations;
• To accept strong hygiene and sanitation measures to prompt effective washing of hands;
• To stimulate mask-wearing, and sanitation at each stage of food production, processing, and marketing.

These measures are important for food businesses where the operating environment is linked with viral transmission between workers, especially among those persons that are exposed to limited ventilation. Application of these measures should be provided through the entire food production chain, including places besides processing lines as well as other areas where workers communicate (meeting rooms, locker or break rooms, dining areas, etc.). The measures concern as well employees’ housing and group transportation provided by the FBO.

The provision of the measures should be risk-based and respective to the level of anticipated food business worker exposition: food safety practice in one efficient FSMS may be reliable to protect food business workers in case there are no community cases of COVID-19. However, when an increasing prevalence of COVID-19 cases in the local community takes place then an increased necessity for additional prevention measures in the local community is shaped.

3. Safety measures in the food sector

After the storming rise of the COVID 19 infections among the operational staff in the food sector, a need emerged for urgent assurance of the safety of the people handling and delivering the food commodity. This imposed the necessity among food operators and workers to keep good manufacturing practices (GMP) and good hygiene practices (GHP).

The manufacture of food permanently demands food manufacturing practices (FMP) to mind global food safety standards.

To ensure coherency in the quality and safety of food products, the attention is focused on five key elements: people, premises, processes, products, and procedures. The latter concerns the basic rules of personal hygiene, e.g. hand washing; sanitizers use; social distancing guidelines keeping [19]. Figure 1 shows the five basic rules of personal hygiene.

Figure 1. Five rules of personal hygiene.

3.1. Measurements performed by operational bodies

• Social distancing: The social distancing provision is reached through suitable marking for the workers. The shift systems have been applied where they are permitted to work in shifts to diminish the chances of mass meetings;
• Health supervision: The early COVID-19 symptoms are fever, cough, headache, and shortness of breath. It is advised a proper thermal screening of all the persons entering the working area be made. The working premises are allowed for workers with good health status kept in the record. In this way, people with severe cases of diseases like asthma, diabetes, or heart ailments are secure and those who are feeling unwell to are excluded from the working process. In this way, the reduction of the exposition of the health workers is ensured, and the risk for other people having COVID 19 infection is identified.
• Safety equipment: Following the official guidelines, the workers in the food industry are furnished with safety kits including face masks, hand gloves, and sanitizers. There are also recommendations for the food operators to keep immunity boosters and ban the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other things that can compromise the staff’s health.
• Work premises sanitization: The food industry strongly depends upon the sanitization process and the proper cleaning. The whole areas: working: production; packaging; stores, and washrooms must be sanitized and cleaned with soap, water, and disinfectants (1% to 2% hypochlorite solution).

Communicative events: campaigns for information and awareness have to be provided to show COVID-19 symptoms, actions in case of infection, and basic rules of personal hygiene used as a norm of different food safety standards.

3.2. Obligations for the food handlers in food processing and packaging industries

• To evade the contact of doors of lifts and use of biometrics;
• To wear the mode of keeping a social distance (at least a 2-meter gap) and proper availability and use of safety equipment like masks, hand gloves, and PPE kits;
• To secure the details of him/her health status for the authority and to keep proper isolation and quarantine rules in case of flu-like symptoms;
• To maintain good practice in the food packaging, proper washing of all the packaging material to be done with soap and water;
• To throw the packaging after removing packaged goods for storage into clean containers;
• To keep up three days of food items before touching them;
• To follow the norms of WHO for proper sanitization.

Although there is no evidence to date contracting the virus after touching food containers and packaged food, safety measures for the handling of packaged food, fresh food, grocery store food, and food containers have to be undertaken (see Fig. 2).

Figure 2. Safety measures for food handling

In case the packaging material is leaking, the products have to be transferred into a secondary container that is sanitized and placed close to the carrying vehicle. If leaks occur, the surface should be thoroughly washed with hot, soapy water or a bleach solution in case it came in contact with raw meat, poultry or seafood, or its juices.

3.3. Food supply and catering services

There are approved guidelines for the workers who are managing food pickup and delivery as handling and delivery of food items was found to be one of the root causes of the spread of infection [18]. The basic measures for proper cleaning, sanitizing, food items maintenance and social distance keeping are listed in Fig. 3, below.

Figure 3. Safety measures for food production auxiliary activities.

 

4. COVID 19 impact on the food processing sector

Along the corona virus infection spreading, governments have implemented different approaches and procedures to handle or to stop the pandemic. These were followed by changes in the demands of the consumers as well as in their eating patterns. Finally, all this resulted in big losses for the most food processing sectors like dairy, sugar, meat, and poultry [7].

Dairy and sugar processing industries

In the process of taking safety measures, various countries across the world implemented stringent lockdown regulations that severely hit the dairy industry and thereby the socio-economic condition of the dairy workers. The price level of dairy products decreased due to the reduction in the demand for dairy products and due to a decrease in the export of dairy products [39]. Pandemic restrictions and measures, imposed difficulties in the normal operation of sugar processing industries. For instance, in India, the import and export of sugar have been severely affected and as the demand got reduced to 50%, there was a sharp decline in the production. Alcohol and jaggery production was adversely affected due to the decline in the sugar processing sector. Sugar processing industries were also hit due to a shortage of consumables like packaging materials [40].

Meat and seafood industries

Apart from the dairy and sugar industries, the meat and seafood industry are the other ones that were largely hit due to the coronavirus pandemic. The increasing positive cases and deaths due to corona virus in the meat and poultry industries resulted in the shutdown of plants. According to the article in Food Processing, 13 May 2020, about 20 industrial plants have been shut down in the US including Tyson foods, a Plant in Waterloo, Iowa, other plants like JBS, Sanderson farms, Hormel foods, National beef, and Smithfield food after the reports of COVID -19 infections [11].

The above facts created panic and rumors around the consumption of meat and seafood during the pandemic. WHO advised on reducing the visits to the live markets and the meat consumption, and asked for caution while eating raw or undercooked animal products. To tackle the crisis during the pandemic, organized retailers invested heavily in the back-end processes, which included introducing hygienic techniques of meat production and processing techniques for the workers of the meat industry, training and educating them about clean meat production practices, processing, packaging, and quality assurance [44].

5. Changes in food consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic

Food production and consumption possesses immersive environmental impact, key to the personal health as well as to the health of the world. On the other hand, afflictions like the COVID-19 pandemic can crash the food system [20] and alter the link with the food. For example, the authorities apply logistic restrictions limiting the flow of goods and people to diminish the spreading of the infection. These measures are increasing the risk of food shortage due to damaged supply chains, involving those related to labour deficit [as can be seen in the US and Europe, [22, 28]. When partial or full lockdown measures are applied at regional and national levels, educational institutions and workplaces are closed, some shops and restaurants as well, events are banned, and traveling is limited. The lockdown measures changed as well the way people received their food, the place they consumed it, and the way the food was prepared. The aforementioned measures are acting as a further obstacle to the food supply to vulnerable populations. For instance, some food programmes providing main meals for school children did not operate during the restrictions. In addition, the quarantine due to disease or contact with infected people further restricted people’s access to food. Also, a variety of COVID-19 linked psychological changes might influence food-related behaviours. Indeed, even in case of relatively low disease risks, people were subjected to serious risk about the threatening dimensions of COVID-19 infection, which caused them stress. This stress is coped with the so called “stress-related eating’”, a condition in which people try to make themselves feel better by eating or drinking when under stress [9, 24]. Thus, during lockdown in Italy, people enlarged the use of processed “comfort foods,” like chocolate, chips, and snacks [5, 36]. This fact was linked to depression caused by COVID-19 and change of their eating habits [14]. An investigation made in Denmark also indicated an increased level of emotional eating during the lockdown, e.g., higher consumption of pastries and alcohol [21]. The same tendency was observed in Norway, where people with increased COVID-19 depression and general psychological distress, higher than the overall population consumed more high-sugar food and beverages [4].

Risk perception linked with COVID-19 effected people’s food purchase and consumption behaviours. Thus, people tried to reduce the risk of the infection through the use of mainly convenient delivery services and buying preferably packaged food. This behaviour is rational since it realises better hygienic impact through purchasing food with a longer shelf-life, limiting the shopping trips, as well as boosting the immune system [34]. The pandemic situation increased people’s concern towards expected food shortages and effected the purchasing behaviour, making them stocking up regarding certain foods [5]. Meanwhile, it was shown that COVID-19 might present additional health risks linked with the metabolic impact of overeating under conditions of home arrest [26].

Ammar et al. [2] reported an evolution of harmful to the health eating patterns, found through an international survey on physical activity and eating behaviour performed with more than 1000 participants in April 2020. Similar results were also found in a Polish national cross-sectional study (N = 1,097) by Sidor and Rzymski [38]. Nearly half of the participating people (mainly overweight individuals) declared more eating and snacking [38]. In Italy, affected by COVID-19 earlier and more seriously than other European countries, after the lockdown in March 2020 about 20% of the patients that passed the corona disease gained weight. These observations were partially confirmed by a food consumption study that investigated changes in the sale of food in over 10,000 Italian stores [5]. The findings of this survey indicated an expansion in the use of pasta, flour, eggs, long-life milk and frozen foods, together with a decrease in the buying of fresh food. The above-mentioned surveys focused on the general population. As regards the specifically targeted younger people, a study of 820 adolescents (10 – 19 years old) from Europe and South America showed that COVID-19 confinement has imposed changes to the dietary habits and consumption of both processed foods and fruits and vegetables [35].

Investigations performed by consulting companies aiming to study the shift in the shopping behaviour during COVID-19 in relation to the variety of product categories (food and others) indicated a marked variation in all categories studied. A defined tendency was observed for a change to “mindful” shopping, “trading-down” to less expensive items [27], with a strong focus on “essentials” [27, 1, 17]. Groceries was the product category in which purchasing across all countries consistently anticipated spending more [27, 36].

The above-mentioned data concerning shifting in food purchase/consumption trends during COVID-19 illustrate general conditions, but does not illustrate the specific changes in people’s state of affairs caused by the pandemic and leading to lockdown. The data are substantial for identification of the mechanisms supporting the described above shifts and for making a precise forecast of the effects of COVID-19. These can define the measures regarding minimization of the adverse effects on food consumption.

6. Beyond the pandemic: transformation of the food systems after COVID-19

The Coronavirus pandemic and the associated political debates and responses led to unprecedented health disaster, economic poverty, services disturbances, unbelievable restrictions on movement. However, this extraordinary situation offers opportunities for the global food system to be transformed in more resilient, inclusive, efficient, sustainable and healthy. With the advancement of the COVID-19 pandemic and the parallel restrictive economic and social measures, a lot of countries introduced measures foreseen to secure the food products flow and introduced programmes developed to ensure food security in new ways. Innovations have been introduced along the food supply chain, developed mainly by the large companies and SMEs from the private sector, to help overcoming the constraints imposed by the recurrent lockdowns. In addition, they stimulated investments in technologies and partnerships to support viable food supply chains.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic food systems responded both with a fast pace and flexibility. The post-pandemic reality offered unique option the food systems to be transformed fundamentally in order to protect the fate of billions of people exposed to poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. In this respect, five major attributes of the food system have been concerned.

• The food system efficiency: delivering proficiency all along the food supply chain, including crop production, infrastructure, food storage and transportation, and food consumption;
• The food system contribution to global health: producing affordable to all food of good nutritious quality and keeping food safety;
• The food system must be inclusive to all: it contributes to building descent livelihood and allows all to benefit – both as participants and consumers of decision making;
• The environmental sustainability of the food system: it is exploiting technological innovations, local and global regulations and governance approaches to conserve and protect natural habitats, resources, and biodiversity;
• The food system must be resilient: it must be able to overcome economic, health, and climate shocks, and provide people stabile livelihood and protection against such shocks. With the tendency the natural disasters (incl. pandemics) to become more frequent, the focus of the food systems must be their resilience from farm to global level.

Consolidation of these five attributes of the food system demands coordinated efforts at the level of food system policies, governance, and accountability.

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Test LO 5.1

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