IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i13p9865-d1175799.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on College Students’ Food Choice Motives in Greece

Author

Listed:
  • Dimitris Skalkos

    (Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece)

  • Zoi C. Kalyva

    (Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece)

  • Ioanna S. Kosma

    (Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece)

Abstract

We are already more than year away from the pandemic period of COVID-19; its effects and the changes it caused in our lives are becoming ever clearer, and these effects include our food choices and motives. In this study, we investigated changes in food choice motives due to the COVID-19 in college students in Greece; we used the 10 key food motives, namely health, convenience, sensory pleasure, appeal, nutritional quality, moral concerns, weight control, mood and stress, familiarity, price, and shopping frequency and behavior. A sample of 1017 college students answered the questionnaire survey through the Google platform, conducted in January to February 2023. The collected data were analyzed with statistical tools, combining cross and chi-square tests. The students exhibited subtle and very important preferences in terms of health, convenience, weight control, and mood and stress. Food choices related to sensory appeal, nutritional quality, and familiarity were of less importance for the students, similarly to ethical concerns; concern regarding the environmental impact of the food was greater than expected. The motive which continues to be of the highest concern for students before and after the pandemic is price; the students look for value for money in food (88.8%), inexpensiveness (80.7%), and cheapness (78.7%). The shopping frequency and behavior motives, which changed during the pandemic, have now returned to the preferences of the pre-pandemic period, with the purchasing of foods distributed between supermarkets (29%), local grocery stores (37.6%), online (12.3%), and by delivery services (20.4%), weekly or every two weeks. College students’ preference for cooking full meals at home is now very high, reaching 74.4%; students mostly avoid eating at restaurants or eating fast food (only 27%). Our findings indicate that students have already returned to their food choice motives of the period before COVID-19, except with regard to home-cooked food which now ranks higher in their preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Dimitris Skalkos & Zoi C. Kalyva & Ioanna S. Kosma, 2023. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on College Students’ Food Choice Motives in Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-11, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:13:p:9865-:d:1175799
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/9865/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/9865/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dimitris Skalkos & Zoi C. Kalyva, 2023. "Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Choice Motives: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Carine Meyimdjui & Jean-Louis Combes, 2021. "Food Price Shocks and Household Consumption in Developing Countries: The Role of Fiscal Policy," IMF Working Papers 2021/012, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Axelle Hoge & Mathilde Labeye & Anne-Françoise Donneau & Halehsadat Zahraei Nekoee & Eddy Husson & Michèle Guillaume, 2022. "Health Literacy and Its Associations with Understanding and Perception of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labels among Higher Education Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-19, July.
    4. Kathrin Wunsch & Korbinian Kienberger & Claudia Niessner, 2022. "Changes in Physical Activity Patterns Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-48, February.
    5. Nadia Palmieri & Alessandro Suardi & Luigi Pari, 2020. "Italian Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Eucalyptus Firewood," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Dimitris Skalkos & Ioanna S. Kosma & Eleni Chasioti & Thomas Bintsis & Haralabos C. Karantonis, 2021. "Consumers’ Perception on Traceability of Greek Traditional Foods in the Post-COVID-19 Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-17, November.
    7. Dimitris Skalkos & Nikos Roumeliotis & Ioanna S. Kosma & Christos Yiakoumettis & Haralabos C. Karantonis, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Consumers’ Motives in Purchasing and Consuming Quality Greek Wine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-23, June.
    8. George Tsalis & Birger Boutrup Jensen & S. Wiley Wakeman & Jessica Aschemann-Witzel, 2021. "Promoting Food for the Trash Bin? A Review of the Literature on Retail Price Promotions and Household-Level Food Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-21, April.
    9. Nadia Palmieri & Maria Angela Perito & Claudio Lupi, 2020. "Consumer acceptance of cultured meat: some hints from Italy," Post-Print hal-03385175, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dimitris Skalkos & Katerina Bamicha & Ioanna S. Kosma & Elpida Samara, 2023. "Greek Semi-Hard and Hard Cheese Consumers’ Perception in the New Global Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Dimitris Skalkos & Zoi C. Kalyva, 2023. "Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Choice Motives: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Dimitris Skalkos & Ioanna S. Kosma & Eleni Chasioti & Thomas Bintsis & Haralabos C. Karantonis, 2021. "Consumers’ Perception on Traceability of Greek Traditional Foods in the Post-COVID-19 Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-17, November.
    4. Dimitris Skalkos & Ioanna S. Kosma & Areti Vasiliou & Raquel P. F. Guine, 2021. "Consumers’ Trust in Greek Traditional Foods in the Post COVID-19 Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Nadia Palmieri & Alessandro Suardi & Francesco Latterini & Luigi Pari, 2020. "The Eucalyptus Firewood: Understanding Consumers’ Behaviour and Motivations," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-12, October.
    6. Dimitris Skalkos & Nikos Roumeliotis & Ioanna S. Kosma & Christos Yiakoumettis & Haralabos C. Karantonis, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Consumers’ Motives in Purchasing and Consuming Quality Greek Wine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-23, June.
    7. Faith Samkange & Haywantee Ramkissoon & Juliet Chipumuro & Henry Wanyama & Gaurav Chawla, 2021. "Innovative and Sustainable Food Production and Food Consumption Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Recipe for Delivering Development Success in South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-20, October.
    8. Mladen Krstić & Giulio Paolo Agnusdei & Snežana Tadić & Pier Paolo Miglietta, 2023. "Prioritization of e-traceability drivers in the agri-food supply chains," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, December.
    9. Apichai Wattanapisit & Manas Kotepui & Sanhapan Wattanapisit & Noah Crampton, 2022. "Bibliometric Analysis of Literature on Physical Activity and COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-9, June.
    10. Marco D’Addario & Roberta Adorni & Patrizia Steca & Roberto Capelli & Francesco Zanatta & Francesco Fattirolli & Cristina Franzelli & Cristina Giannattasio & Andrea Greco, 2022. "Associations between Lifestyle Changes and Adherence to COVID-19 Restrictions in Older Adults with Hypertension," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-15, June.
    11. Marcus Vinicius Nascimento-Ferreira & Ana Clara Arrais Rosa & Jacyara Cristina Azevedo & Armando Rodrigues de Alencar Santos & Keisyanne De Araujo-Moura & Kelber Abrão Ferreira, 2022. "Psychometric Properties of the Online International Physical Activity Questionnaire in College Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-9, November.
    12. Hongxu Shi & Peihua Ma & Yinchu Zeng & Jiping Sheng, 2022. "Understanding the Interaction between Regulatory Focus and Message Framing in Determining Chinese Consumers’ Attitudes toward Artificial Meat," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-17, April.
    13. Helander, Hanna & Schnepf, Simone & Stetter, Theresa & Ferrara, Francesca & Leipold, Sina, 2024. "Convenient solutions, inconvenient truths – Why supermarkets will not drive food system transformation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    14. Luigi Pari & Alessandro Suardi & Walter Stefanoni & Francesco Latterini & Nadia Palmieri, 2021. "Economic and Environmental Assessment of Two Different Rain Water Harvesting Systems for Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-13, March.
    15. Tanja Eberhardt & Klaus Bös & Claudia Niessner, 2022. "Changes in Physical Fitness during the COVID-19 Pandemic in German Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-13, August.
    16. Daniel Lindberg & Maria Elvén & Kent W. Nilsson & Petra Von Heideken Wågert & Jonas Stier & Micael Dahlen & Birgitta Kerstis, 2023. "How Have Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior, Changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Swedish Repeated Cross-Sectional Design Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-12, February.
    17. Nadia Palmieri & Roberto Tomasone & Carla Cedrola & Daniele Puri & Mauro Pagano, 2023. "Factors Affecting Disabled Consumer Preferences for an Electric Vehicle for Rural Mobility: An Italian Experimental Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    18. Nadia Palmieri & Walter Stefanoni & Francesco Latterini & Luigi Pari, 2022. "Italian Consumer Preferences for Eucalyptus Honey: An Exploratory Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-11, June.
    19. Kym Anderson, 2023. "Agriculture's globalization: Endowments, technologies, tastes and policies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1314-1352, September.
    20. Hyo Lee & Damien Vitiello, 2022. "Five-Year Trend in Adherence Rate to Aerobic Physical Activity Guidelines among Korean Adults in Metropolitan Cities: 2016–2020 Korea Community Health Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-14, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:13:p:9865-:d:1175799. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.