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Covid-19 is a serious threat to the dietary quality of vulnerable communities in developing countries with limited economic resources. This study explored the implications of COVID-19 on daily dietary behavior and food consumption patterns of perishable and nonperishable food commodities based on the gender of household headship in Pakistan.

The data was collected through an online survey using the snowball sampling technique. A mixed design ANOVA, an independent t-test and a multivariate probit model were used to look at the data from 417 female-headed households and 1,131 male-headed households that were surveyed in the study.

Female-headed households experienced a greater decrease in their daily intake of perishable and nonperishable food commodities compared to male-headed households during COVID-19. The decrease in consumption of perishable food commodities was greater than the decrease in nonperishable food commodities for both female-headed and male-headed households. Female-headed households witnessed the largest decrease in daily intake of animal-derived foods, while male-headed households observed the highest diminution in consumption of fruits. Female-headed households and male-headed households reduced their consumption of perishable food commodities by more than one-third and one-fifth, respectively. Households with lower socioeconomic status reported higher reductions in their daily intakes of food commodities compared to households with higher socioeconomic status.

The cross-sectional nature of the collected data does not allow the development of a causal relationship between COVID-19 implications and food consumption changes in daily dietary patterns.

Dietary and consumption patterns of populations are changing worldwide due to COVID-19. There is no study to assist policymakers in determining how COVID-19 is affecting the daily food consumption patterns of perishable and non-perishable food commodities of households based on gender in the developing world.

Improved production with quality, safety, and security is the biggest challenge of the food industry. Modern technologies, including robotics and automation systems, can help to cope with such issues. This chapter gives a brief view of robotics and automation for the sustainable food industry along with packaging, warehousing, distribution, marketing, and consumer services. It describes the recently implemented solutions of robotic automation in different supply chain operations and various food commodities. The benefits of robotic and automation technology for perishable and semi-perishable items have also been covered. The present research may assist the food industry professionals, supply chain managers, and academicians in implementing automation and robotics in the food industry.

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.

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).

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.

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.

This study aims to examine the blockchain landscape in supply chain management by drawing insights from academic and industry literature. It identifies the key drivers, categorizes the products involved and highlights the business values achieved by early adopters of blockchain technology within the supply chain domain. Additionally, it explores fingerprinting techniques to establish a robust connection between physical products and the blockchain ledger.

The authors combined the interpretive sensemaking systematic literature review to offer insights into how organizations interpreted their business challenges and adopted blockchain technology in their specific supply chain context; content analysis (using Leximancer automated text mining software) for concept mapping visualization, facilitating the identification of key themes, trends and relationships, and qualitative thematic analysis (NVivo) for data organization, coding and enhancing the depth and efficiency of analysis.

The findings highlight the transformative potential of blockchain technology and offer valuable insights into its implementation in optimizing supply chain operations. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of product provenance information to consumers, with blockchain technology offering certainty and increasing customer loyalty toward brands that prioritize transparency.

This research has several limitations that should be acknowledged. First, there is a possibility that some relevant investigations may have been missed or omitted, which could impact the findings. In addition, the limited availability of literature on blockchain adoption in supply chains may restrict the scope of the conclusions. The evolving nature of blockchain adoption in supply chains also poses a limitation. As the technology is in its infancy, the authors expect that a rapidly emerging body of literature will provide more extensive evidence-based general conclusions in the future. Another limitation is the lack of information contrasting academic and industry research, which could have provided more balanced insights into the technology’s advancement. The authors attributed this limitation to the narrow collaborations between academia and industry in the field of blockchain for supply chain management.

Practitioners recognize the potential of blockchain in addressing industry-specific challenges, such as ensuring transparency and data provenance. Understanding the benefits achieved by early adopters can serve as a starting point for companies considering blockchain adoption. Blockchain technology can verify product origin, enable truthful certifications and comply with established standards, reinforcing trust among stakeholders and customers. Thus, implementing blockchain solutions can enhance brand reputation and consumer confidence by ensuring product authenticity and quality. Based on the results, companies can align their strategies and initiatives with their needs and expectations.

In essence, the integration of blockchain technology within supply chain provenance initiatives not only influences economic aspects but also brings substantial social impacts by reinforcing consumer trust, encouraging sustainable and ethical practices, combating product counterfeiting, empowering stakeholders and contributing to a more responsible, transparent and progressive socioeconomic environment.

This study consolidates current knowledge on blockchain’s capacity and identifies the specific drivers and business values associated with early blockchain adoption in supply chain provenance. Furthermore, it underscores the critical role of product fingerprinting techniques in supporting blockchain for supply chain provenance, facilitating more robust and efficient supply chain operations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profound implications on the food and nutritional security of millions of households. The study assessed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on diet diversity, calorie consumption and intake of essential nutrients based on the gender of the households.

Mixed-design ANOVA and logistic regression were used to analyze the collected data from 260 female- and 463 male-headed households through an online survey in Pakistan.

The outcomes revealed that the diet diversity of female households was affected more due to the COVID-19 compared to male households. The decline in daily nutrients' (protein, phosphorus, zinc, iron and iodine) intake during the COVID-19 was also greater for female-headed households than male-headed households. The share of all food groups in daily calorie and nutrient provision decreased significantly during the COVID-19 for both types of households. The share of meat and meat products declined more for female-headed households compared to male-headed households. The share of perishable commodities in calorie provision to female and male households decreased 2% during the COVID-19 compared to the normal period. Small- and medium-sized female and male households were less likely to experience worsened diet diversity than large-sized households during the COVID-19. Low-income compared to medium- and high-income female and male households were more likely to report declined food diversity during the COVID-19.

The data used in this study were collected through an online survey due to public health measures imposed in the country.

Despite the emergence of literature on the implications of the pandemic on food security, the studies related to the gender-based impacts of COVID-19 on diet diversity and nutritional intakes of necessary nutrients are still non-existent. The current study will add to the literature by filling this gap.

During a pandemic, risk and uncertainty are the most important factors affecting consumer behavior. Near Eastern marketplaces are undergoing dramatic change during the COVID-19 global pandemic. As a result, this paper aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on food shopping habits in four countries of the Near East sub-region, namely, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Oman and Qatar.

The research is based on an online survey conducted on 1,456 subjects using a snowball sampling technique. The questionnaire consisted of 24 different questions (multiple-choice, one option) regarding the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on food habits such as food shopping, preparation, eating and food waste.

The findings show that consumers’ shopping habits and food sourcing in the region changed due to the risk and uncertainty connected with the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, respondents decreased their shopping frequency and, as a result, increased the amount of food purchased each trip. Secondly, because of food safety concerns, respondents boosted their purchases of local products. Thirdly, the data revealed an increase in online food shopping, mainly in high-income countries, namely, Qatar and Oman. Fourthly, the findings revealed significant disparities in food stockpiling behavior across the countries investigated.

The major limitation of this study is the survey bias. The survey respondents were randomly hired. The questionnaire was completed by volunteers who were not rewarded. Only those motivated by a personal interest in the topic took part in the study. The sample had a high number of educated individuals, which does not represent the overall populations of the studied countries. In this case, generalizing the findings is inaccurate. A segment of the population with lower accessibility, such as individuals who are not web-literate, as well as the elderly, poor households and informal workers, especially in the Near East and North African (NENA) region, is often underrepresented in online surveys.

The findings provide insight into how consumers’ food shopping habits have changed due to the pandemic. This and other research will help governments and other organizations better prepare for future disasters and pandemics. The study’s results will also be useful in formulating evidence-based policies for the four countries studied and the NENA area as a whole throughout the post-pandemic recovery phase. The findings, for example, emphasized the necessity of encouraging online shopping by upgrading information and communication technology infrastructure and internet speed, particularly in middle-income and developing countries like Lebanon. Furthermore, in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, the findings provide insights to international organizations (both humanitarian and development ones) to pay more attention to issues of food and nutrition security to avoid the financial and political crises combined with the COVID-19 health crisis, become a humanitarian crisis for locals as well as the hundreds of thousands of refugees (primarily Syrians in Lebanon). Finally, the pandemic’s long-term impact on food activities and food security must be mitigated by including agricultural and food systems in recovery efforts. Several issues are posing a threat to food systems. Addressing them successfully involves developing cross-disciplinary research that innovates at their intersections to provide different solutions that address the social, economic, technological and policy components of these issues.

The paper’s findings indicate that the pandemic’s consequences will most certainly differ from country to country, based not just on the epidemiologic condition but also, inter alia, on the level of pre-COVID socioeconomic development.

Right after announcing the first cases, several governments worldwide have implemented stringent measures to stop the spread of COVID-19. This disruption in individuals' daily routines transformed food consumption habits. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food consumption, diet and food shopping behaviors in Lebanon.

The paper draws upon an online survey in Lebanon administered in Arabic and English through the Survey Monkey platform in the period of July 15—August 5, 2020, with 201 adults. The survey findings were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a paired sample t-test and a Phi correlation test.

The research underlined numerous key consumer tendencies that are currently affecting diet and food behavior in Lebanon. Indeed, the study outcomes suggested (1) a move toward healthier diets; (2) a rise in the consumption of domestic products due to food safety concerns; (3) a change in the grocery shopping behaviors (with a rise in online shopping); (4) a surge of food stockpiling; and (5) a decrease in household food wastage. Surprisingly, COVID-19 seems to generate several positive changes toward more sustainable and healthier consumption patterns in Lebanon.

These findings contribute to the clarification and critical analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on food behaviors in Lebanon, which would have several policy implications.

The findings of this first study contribute to the clarification and critical analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on food behaviors in Lebanon, which would have several policy implications.

This study examines whether the law of one price (LOP) or price convergence holds during the COVID-19 pandemic for essential food items in India.

The authors use the daily retail price data of 22 essential food items from 103 Indian markets for two years (2019 as pre-COVID and 2020 as COVID period). Pesaran's (2007) second-generation panel unit-root test has been used to examine the price convergence of essential food commodities across various markets of different zones in the pre-COVID and COVID periods.

The authors find a tendency toward the convergence of prices across the spatially segregated markets for essential products. But, during the COVID period, there is a weak or no convergence of prices for essential food items. Hence, the LOP does not hold during the pandemic, indicating massive price deviations for food items across Indian markets. This has severe implications for food security as enormous price increases in some markets have been evidenced during the pandemic.

The study calls for immediate policy adoption to restore the disrupted supply chain of essential food items. Along with that, the public authority should strictly prohibit black marketing and unlawful hoarding of essential food items. In addition, farmers should be provided direct cash benefits for restoring their farming activities.

This paper is first study to examine that hypothesis of LOP in the context of COVID crisis.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has given rise to different dimensions of uncommon human behavior, and panic buying is one of them. Interestingly, panic buying research has not been given much attention. The purpose of this paper is threefold. Firstly, it examines the influences of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) elements (subjective norm, attitude and perceived behavior control (PBC)) on panic buying. Secondly, it investigates online news and the perceived likelihood of being affected (PLA) as antecedents to the TPB constructs. Finally, to examine online news verification as a moderator on the relationship between the TPB constructs and panic buying.

Data were collected from 371 respondents and analyzed using the partial least squares method structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). PLS predict was applied to determine the predictive power of the model further.

This study found that subjective norms and attitude influence panic buying. The results further revealed that online news has a direct influence on the PLA and attitude. However, PBC has no such effect on panic buying. Surprisingly, online news verification also has no moderating effects on the relationships between the TPB elements and panic buying.

This research helps to understand consumer panic buying behavior, especially during shock events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is the first that extends the TPB incorporating both online news and PLA as antecedents to panic buying in the same model. Furthermore, the study serves as an initial attempt to investigate online news verification as a moderator between the link of three constructs of TPB and panic buying, contributing to existing literature. Lastly, it advances the body of knowledge on consumer behavior and contributes methodologically by introducing the PLS approach.

Numerous studies have shown that community service during adolescence is associated with positive youth outcomes and future civic engagement (Reinders and Youniss, 2006; Yates and Youniss, 1996). However, less is known about the ways in which students participate in and perceive intermittent, noncurricular community service. The purpose of this study is to examine seventh and eighth grade students' (N = 22) experiences during a common school-wide community service event: the canned food drive.

Data include students' journal responses to questions about the food drive including their feelings about the event, learning that took place, positive parts of the drive and challenges. An inductive qualitative analysis was used.

Analysis of students' responses revealed that most students perceived themselves and their classmates as being very helpful to the community and described feeling happiness and pride from the event, even when participation was minimal or nonexistent. While some students reported awareness of poverty and inequality after the food drive, many of their comments about those receiving the donations included deficit-oriented terminology and cognitive distancing by positioning those experiencing food insecurity as “the other” and different from themselves.

Findings highlight the benefits and shortcomings of community service, as class biases and surface-level ideas about helping may be unintentionally reinforced. Recommendations to address these issues are discussed.

Given the prevalence of community service in schools, qualitative research is needed to understand firsthand how students experience these events.