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Food attitudes and consumer behavior towards food in conflict-affected zones during the COVID-19 pandemic: case of the Palestinian territories

Tarek Ben Hassen (Program of Policy, Planning, and Development, Department of International Affairs, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar)
Hamid El Bilali (International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM-Bari), Valenzano, Italy)
Mohammad Sadegh Allahyari (Department of Agricultural Management, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Islamic Republic of Iran) (Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, North-West University, Mmabatho, South Africa)
Rabeh Morrar (Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute-MAS, Ramallah, Palestinian Authority)

British Food Journal

ISSN: 0007-070X

Article publication date: 2 December 2021

Issue publication date: 9 August 2022

522

Abstract

Purpose

Global lockdowns and restrictions linked to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have affected food environments and consumption patterns. Conflict-affected countries are disproportionately affected from economic and food security perspectives. In this regard, the Palestinian territories (namely West Bank and Gaza Strip), which face a number of issues such as Israeli military and economic control, overcrowded cities and refugee camps (especially in Gaza Strip), rising poverty and food insecurity, are an especially interesting case study. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the selection and intake of foods and drinks, as well as consumer behavior and attitude toward food in the Palestinian territories.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws upon an online survey in the Palestinian territories administered in Arabic through the Survey Monkey platform from September 15 to October 10, 2020, with 322 adults. The survey findings were analyzed using descriptive statistics and several nonparametric tests. Particularly, the U-Mann Whitney test was used in dichotomous, categorical independent variables (e.g. gender), while the Kruskal–Wallis test was run to analyze multi-choice responses (e.g. occupation).

Findings

The results reveal that food attitudes and consumer behavior towards food have been widely affected. First, they reveal that Palestinians try to have healthier diets but ate more between meals (e.g. snacks). Second, the pandemic transformed respondents' shopping behavior and induced panic buying, negatively affecting food affordability due to increased prices of some foods (e.g. fruits and vegetables). Some food behaviors were shaped by negative psychological determinants (e.g. depression and anxiety). The pandemic effects are moderated by different sociodemographics (age, education and income). COVID-19 negatively affected food security but also opened a “window of opportunity” to trigger the transition towards more sustainable diets.

Originality/value

The paper results show that the eventual effects of COVID-19 will most likely vary from country to country, based not only on the epidemiological circumstances but also, among other factors, on the baseline socioeconomic situation and shock resilience. The findings contribute to the clarification and critical analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on food behaviors in the Palestinian territories, which would have several policy implications.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Ethical statement: The survey “was carried out following the Helsinki Declaration principles, and all procedures involving research study participants were authorized by the Western Michigan University Human Subjects Institutional Review Board (HSIRB). Participation in the survey was voluntary. At the beginning of the survey, all participants were informed about the research's objective and context and gave their digital informed consent regarding privacy and information management policies.”

Funding: The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Author contributions: Conceptualization, TBH, HEB and MSA; methodology, TBH, HEB and MSA; software, MSA; validation, MSA; formal analysis, TBH, HEB and MSA; investigation, TBH and RM; data curation, MSA; writing—original draft preparation, TBH and HEB; writing—review and editing, TBH, HEB and RM; project administration, TBH and HEB. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Declaration of competing interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Citation

Ben Hassen, T., El Bilali, H., Allahyari, M.S. and Morrar, R. (2022), "Food attitudes and consumer behavior towards food in conflict-affected zones during the COVID-19 pandemic: case of the Palestinian territories", British Food Journal, Vol. 124 No. 9, pp. 2921-2936. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-05-2021-0590

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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