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Effects and Implications of COVID-19 for the Human Senses, Consumer...
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Effects and Implications of COVID-19 for the Human Senses, Consumer Preferences, Appetite and Eating Behaviour: Volume II

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensory and Consumer Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2024 | Viewed by 11049

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Derek V. Byrne

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Food Quality Perception and Society, iSenseLab, Department of Food Science, Aarhus University, Agro Food Park 48, DK-8200 Aarhus, Denmark
Interests: sensory science; consumer science; food and beverage product quality; nutrition and eating; multisensory effects; crossmodal interactions; sensory methods; food uniqueness
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) evolved into a global pandemic assessment of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) patients have presented a health condition including, in many cases, a mild to severe loss of smell and tasting abilities among patients.

Initial work has shown short and likely longer term negative effects on the human senses, with some indications for effects on consumer preferences; however, as of yet, very little is known about the impacts on eating behaviours and consequent longer term effects on appetite.

Food enjoyment is a key aspect of people's appetite, and any loss in expected pleasure greatly affects our motivation to eat, potentially leading to persons affected by COVID-19 to experience core changes in relation to their food intake practices, which may potentially have long term implications for health and recovery.

The aim of this Special Issue/book Volume II, is to further bring together researchers with key insights on how COVID-19 has impacted appetite and eating behaviours from the fundamental to the applicable, as assessed by human sensory perception.

This can include research from the fundamental effects on the senses to changes in consumer preferences all the way to how and why COVID-19 has changed consumer behaviours in relation to food and eating in the longer term.

We are interested in research linked to perception in and of itself or combined with psychology and physiological responses to understand the fundamental nature of eating disturbances in relation to COVID-19.

Overall we wish to document and bring together key research that is ongoing with the overall aim to highlight and ensure this research has a lasting impact regarding future understanding of measures developed to help and treat people affected during the ongoing pandemic.

The ultimate aim is to publish the Special Issue collection once curated as an open source book volume to act as a tool for understanding the long term effects of COVID-19 on human health related to food and eating issues.

Prof. Dr. Derek V. Byrne
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • COVID-19 and the human senses
  • consumer preference and the global pandemic
  • multidiciplinary approahces to understanding COVID-19 effects on eating
  • perception, psychology and physiological changes in relation to COVID-19
  • appetite and COVID-19
  • short and long term effects of COVID-19
  • the Senses and health implications of COVID-19

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 835 KiB  
Article
Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Dairy Consumption Trends: An Empirical Investigation of Accounting Data in China
by Jianxiong Chen, Chung-Cheng Yang and Yu Lin
Foods 2024, 13(5), 741; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/foods13050741 - 28 Feb 2024
Viewed by 752
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic may have had a negative impact on dairy consumption trends. Many dairy products are perishable and have relatively high income elasticity, causing their susceptibility to market fluctuations in general, including those specifically caused by the pandemic. However, the pandemic has [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic may have had a negative impact on dairy consumption trends. Many dairy products are perishable and have relatively high income elasticity, causing their susceptibility to market fluctuations in general, including those specifically caused by the pandemic. However, the pandemic has also brought some other prospective possibilities. For example, during the pandemic, people paid more attention to nutrition and health issues and increased the number of meals prepared and eaten at home. In consideration of the particular circumstances during the pandemic, the Chinese government issued several policies to promote the population’s dairy consumption, and the Chinese dairy cattle sector actively implemented the policy of “guarantee price, quality, and supply”. These factors may have caused the Chinese population to increase their consumption of dairy products during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the consumption of dairy products in the Chinese population showed an overall upward trend. The question addressed in this study is how has COVID-19 affected dairy consumption trends during the pandemic? This study uses accounting data from the Chinese dairy cattle sector to empirically analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on dairy consumption trends through economic theories and translog revenue function. Our study found that COVID-19 increased consumers’ consumption of dairy products in China, but those people experiencing poverty may still have experienced inadequate dairy intake. This study has contributed to the body of work in this area in the literature and provides response strategies for the dairy cattle sector and the authorities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects and Implications of COVID-19 for the Human Senses, Consumer Preferences, Appetite and Eating Behaviour: Volume II)
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16 pages, 513 KiB  
Article
Factors Influencing Consumers’ Organic Food Continuous Purchase Intentions during the Post-Pandemic Era: An Empirical Investigation in China
by Xin Qi, Junjie Mou, Chaoyue Meng and Angelika Ploeger
Foods 2023, 12(8), 1636; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/foods12081636 - 13 Apr 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2828
Abstract
During the evolutionary phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers’ eating habits and spending behaviours have progressively shifted to the pursuit of the safer and healthier food products, such as organic food. Therefore, this study investigated the factors affecting Chinese buyers’ organic food continuous [...] Read more.
During the evolutionary phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers’ eating habits and spending behaviours have progressively shifted to the pursuit of the safer and healthier food products, such as organic food. Therefore, this study investigated the factors affecting Chinese buyers’ organic food continuous purchase intentions (CPI) during the post-pandemic era. To better adapt to the current consumption context in China, this study proposed a modified TPB framework (M-TPB), by replacing subjective norms with Chinese cultural variables, such as face consciousness and group conformity, and adding constructs of perceived value of organic food (PVOF), health consciousness, and the impact of COVID-19 (IOC). Convincingly, experimental results from a structural equation model analysis of 460 usable responses indicate that M-TPB has superior explanatory power (R2 = 65%) compared with the TPB model (R2 = 40%) for explaining organic food CPI during the post-pandemic period. The path analysis demonstrated that perceived behavioural control, attitude, face consciousness, group conformity, health consciousness, IOC, and PVOF had substantial positive effects on CPI, while subjective norms were not significantly related. Moreover, IOC exhibited a positive and significant relationship with health consciousness and PVOF. These findings can be useful for stakeholders in the Chinese organic food industry to generate timely promoting strategies during the post-pandemic period. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects and Implications of COVID-19 for the Human Senses, Consumer Preferences, Appetite and Eating Behaviour: Volume II)
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16 pages, 2031 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Utensil Conditions on Consumer Perception and Acceptance of Food Samples Evaluated under In-Home Testing during the COVID-19 Pandemic
by Asmita Singh and Han-Seok Seo
Foods 2023, 12(5), 914; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/foods12050914 - 21 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1432
Abstract
Sensory professionals are looking for alternative ways to conduct laboratory sensory testing, especially central location testing (CLT), during the COVID-19 pandemic. One way could be conducting CLTs at home (i.e., in-home testing). It is questionable whether food samples under in-home testing should be [...] Read more.
Sensory professionals are looking for alternative ways to conduct laboratory sensory testing, especially central location testing (CLT), during the COVID-19 pandemic. One way could be conducting CLTs at home (i.e., in-home testing). It is questionable whether food samples under in-home testing should be presented in uniform utensils, as it does so under laboratory sensory testing. This study aimed to determine whether utensil conditions could affect consumer perception and acceptance of food samples evaluated under in-home testing. Sixty-eight participants (40 females and 28 males) prepared chicken-flavored ramen noodle samples and evaluated them for attribute perception and acceptance, under two utensil conditions, using either their utensils (“Personal”) or uniform utensils provided (“Uniform”). Participants also rated their liking of forks/spoons, bowls, and eating environments, respectively, and attentiveness to sensory evaluation under each utensil condition. Results of the in-home testing showed that participants liked ramen noodle samples and their flavors under the “Personal” condition significantly more than under the “Uniform” condition. Ramen noodle samples evaluated under the “Uniform” condition were significantly higher in terms of saltiness than those evaluated under the “Personal” condition. Participants liked forks/spoons, bowls, and eating environments used under the “Personal” condition significantly more than those used under the “Uniform” condition. While overall likings of ramen noodle samples, evaluated under the “Personal” condition, significantly increased with an increase in hedonic ratings of forks/spoons or bowls, such significant correlations were not observed under the “Uniform” condition. In other words, providing uniform utensils (forks, spoons, and bowls) to participants in the in-home testing can reduce the influences of utensils on consumer likings of ramen noodle samples evaluated at home. In conclusion, this study suggests that sensory professionals should consider providing uniform utensils when they want to focus solely on consumer perception and acceptance of food samples by minimizing influences of environmental contexts, especially utensils, in the “in-home” testing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects and Implications of COVID-19 for the Human Senses, Consumer Preferences, Appetite and Eating Behaviour: Volume II)
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23 pages, 1664 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Food Delivery Using Big Data: Comparative Study before and after COVID-19
by Jina Jang, Eunjung Lee and Hyosun Jung
Foods 2022, 11(19), 3029; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/foods11193029 - 30 Sep 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5174
Abstract
This study examined consumers’ change in perception related to food delivery using big data before and after the COVID-19 crisis. This study identified words closely associated with the keyword “food delivery” based on big data from social media and investigated consumers’ perceptions of [...] Read more.
This study examined consumers’ change in perception related to food delivery using big data before and after the COVID-19 crisis. This study identified words closely associated with the keyword “food delivery” based on big data from social media and investigated consumers’ perceptions of and needs for food delivery and related issues before and after COVID-19. Results were derived through analysis methods such as text mining analysis, Concor analysis, and sentiment analysis. The research findings can be summarized as follows: In 2019, frequently appearing dining-related words were “dining-out,” “delivery,” “famous restaurant,” “delivery food,” “foundation,” “dish,” “family order,” and “delicious.” In 2021, these words were “delivery,” “delivery food,” “famous restaurant,” “foundation,” “COVID-19,” “dish,” “order,” “application,” and “family.” The analysis results for the food delivery sentimental network based on 2019 data revealed discourses revolving around delicious, delivery food, lunch box, and Korean food. For the 2021 data, discourses revolved around delivery food, recommend, and delicious. The emotional analysis, which extracted positive and negative words from the “food delivery” search word data, demonstrated that the number of positive keywords decreased by 2.85%, while negative keywords increased at the same rate. In addition, compared to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic era, a weakening trend in positive emotions and an increasing trend in negative emotions were detected after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic; sub-emotions under the positive category (e.g., good feelings, joy, interest) decreased in 2021 compared to 2019, whereas sub-emotions under the negative category (e.g., sadness, fear, pain) increased. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects and Implications of COVID-19 for the Human Senses, Consumer Preferences, Appetite and Eating Behaviour: Volume II)
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