IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON ONLINE FOOD ORDERING AND CONSUMPTION PATTERN AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

TANIA ARORA¹, SONIKA SHARMA²*, KHUSHDEEP DHARNI^3
1Department of Food and Nutrition, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, Punjab, India
²Department of Food and Nutrition, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, Punjab, India
³Professor, School of Business Studies, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, Punjab, India
* Corresponding Author : drsonika@pau.edu

Received : 03-03-2022     Accepted : 27-03-2022     Published : 30-03-2022
Volume : 14     Issue : 3       Pages : 11182 - 11187
Int J Agr Sci 14.3 (2022):11182-11187

Keywords : Food ordering apps, Healthy Eating Index, COVID-19, Online food orders
Academic Editor : Jyoti Prakash Sahoo, Dr Ajay Haldar, Swapnil Pandey, Dr Akhilesh Singh
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Authors are thankful to Department of Food and Nutrition, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, Punjab, India
Author Contribution : All authors equally contributed

To investigate the effect of COVID-19 on online food ordering of college students, data was collected from 400 students of Punjab Agricultural University. The students were segregated on the basis of gender (male/female), background (rural/urban), residence (hosteller/days scholar) and family annual income and the data was interpreted. The survey was conducted to obtain data pertaining to their demographic profile, Healthy Eating Index (HEI), usage of online food ordering apps and effect of COVID-19 on it. Majority of the respondents (55%) were ordering food on weekly basis. It was observed that snacks were the most commonly ordered meal followed by major meals like dinner and lunch. Eighty percent of the students need improvement in the diet as revealed by their HEI score. Effect of COVID-19 pandemic was seen on online food ordering and it was observed that the frequency of ordering food especially non-veg and cold items faced a significant slump during COVID-19 scenario. The major reasons reported for ordering food online were time saving of people working from home, pleasure/ for a change and dining out was no longer a safe experience whereas focusing on immunity so preferring home-cooked food and wanted to reduce contact with third person were reported reasons for decreased in online food ordering after COVID-19

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