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

1. Introduction

COVID-19 posed a significant risk to global public health, lifestyle, and the economy, including food consumption [1]. Food selection and preferences changed during the pandemic due to the lockdown, home working arrangements, and other changes in daily life [2]. Therefore, the changes, such as decreased activity [3], increased frequency of food consumption, and snacking [4], recorded in this period were expected results of the pandemic.

Food choice motives (FCMs) refer to the reasons for choosing or consuming particular foods [5], with the main ten key motives being health, convenience, sensory appeal, nutritional quality, moral concerns, weight control, mood and anxiety, familiarity, price and shopping frequency behavior [6]. We recently explored the impact of COVID-19 on FCMs in a systematic review [7]. The findings, based on the limited studies published so far, show that changes in food choices are contentious, and depend on the country of origin, age, and sex of those questioned; these changes can also go in both directions. In 3 to 5 years, when new consumer habits have been established and an adequate number of studies have been published, definite answers to new FCMs will be defined [8]. Until then, researchers will continue to explore the different parameters and factors affecting food choices, in order to better understand the science behind changes in motives. In this study, for the first time, we investigate the food choices and preferences of college students who had been living in quarantine and socially distancing for almost two years; they are now living a normal life.

Students, together with the rest of the society, changed their motivation for choosing certain foods during the pandemic. An early study among Polish secondary school students during the pandemic reported the increased value of weight control and health determinants, and the decreased value of sensory appeal and mood, with the rest of the determinants equally important compared with the pre-COVID period [9]. Luo et al. reviewed reports regarding available changes in parental feeding practices because of the pandemic [10]. He found that parents used various practices of feeding, such as high levels of coercive control and reductions in rules and limits, changes which are expected to affect the food choices of the youngsters when they later become college students. Wang et al. reports that retrospective parental feeding practices are important parameters of college students’ weight levels and ratification, and that appetitive traits apply to these relationships in the Chinese context in the post COVID-19 era [11]. Owens et al. reported on food insecurity among American college students during COVID-19, highlighting the high prevalence of people experiencing insecurity at home, and lower-income people being impacted the most [12]. Wattick et al. reported on the quality and eating behaviors of college students with food addiction in the post-COVID era [13], showing significantly negative expectations for choices between healthy and junk food, lower preferences for vegetables, and higher preferences for added sugars and saturated fat, followed by negative emotions and feelings after eating. Hoge et al., within the pandemic period, studied the food choices of college students with health literacy in connection with front-of-package nutritional labels, and found that the Nutri-Score is helpful in guiding students in their choices of food [14]. Niescwitz et al., at the same time, studied the connection between food insecurity (FI) and FCMs in college students, and found that FCMs increase as FI increases due to food-obsessed habits [15]. Simultaneously, Richards et al. evaluated experiences of college students who are food secure (FS) and FI with factors connected to food choices [16]. Both type of students obtained food from similar sources (e.g., super markets), and reported transportation barriers affecting the amount and package size of food purchased, and the knowledge, attitudes, uses, and familial history of food assistance affecting the kind of food purchased. Students with FI exhibited other priorities over food, and when funds were low, they reduced food consumption, thus experiencing a variation in food supply, monthly, to enhance financial stability. Mialki et al. compared FS status before and during the pandemic among college students [17] and found changes in both directions, with 59.6% becoming less FS, and 40.4% becoming more FS. Stanojevic et al., within the pandemic period, investigated the eating habits of Serbian college students and why they consume traditional food, comparing attitudes with those identified in six other European countries [18]. Connection with family and food taste were found to be the main reasons for selecting traditional foods, with the labeling on the product not found to be a significant factor; the answers of the respondents were close to the answers obtained from participants in Poland.

We have shown the importance of FCMs not only for adults, but also for college students, especially in the new post-COVID-19 era, when the consumers’ perceptions and preferences are changing dramatically. The aim of this research is therefore to explore, for the first time, the impact of COVID-19 and beyond on FCMs of college students. To accomplish the aim, according to the literature on FCM [7], our research tests the following ten key determinants of college students’ motives regarding food in the new era: 1. health, 2. convenience, 3. sensory appeal, 4. nutritional quality, 5. ethical concerns, 6. weight control, 7. mood and stress, 8. familiarity, 9. price, 10. shopping frequency behavior.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Data Collection and Sample Characterization

A questionnaire was prepared to investigate the students’ food choice motives; it was composed of ten parts (Table S1), based on a similar previous study [19]. The social/demographic characteristics of the respondents were obtained in the first part (gender, age, civil state, employment status, and permanent residency). Parts 2–10 consisted of three questions each designed to assess the motives of students on health, convenience, sensory appeal, nutritional quality, ethical concern, weight control, mood and stress, familiarity and price, while part 11 consisted of ten questions regarding the shopping frequency and behavior of Greek students. The questionnaire was initially tested on 50 people in order to ensure the understanding and clarity of the questions, as well as the quality of the data obtained. The use of electronic questionnaires was the basis of the research due to their ease of distribution and collection during the semi-lockdown period. The distribution method chosen was by e-mail [20,21,22], using the snowball method in order to obtain a large number of participants [19]. Τhe questionnaire was created and distributed using the Google Forms function due to the ease of generating the responses and results in an Excel sheet. The geographical context of the present study was all Greek regions, divided into five regions. Students of the University of Ioannina with permanent residency outside the Ioannina area received e-mails explaining the purpose of the survey and the importance of their participation; a link was attached, which led to the electronic form of the questions. The respondents’ personal information was secured and not associated with any of the responses.

The sample of the population is very well distributed among students aged 18–25 years old. There were more female (69%) than male respondents (31%), a finding similar to that of other researches [20,21,22], leading to the conclusion that college female students respond more willingly to food-related surveys as they are more involved in household organization than male students.

The survey took place during the period January to February 2023, and had 1017 participants (

Table 1. Sociodemographic characterization of the sample.

Variable	Groups	(%)
Gender	Male	31.0
	Female	69.0
Age	18–20	38.0
	21–25	49.0
	26–30	7.5
	31–35	5.5
Civil state	Single	93.3
	Married	5.0
	Divorced	1.7
Employment status	Employed student	27.7
	Unemployed student	72.3
Residency	NORTH GREECE (regions of Macedonia—Thrace)	29.2
	WEST GREECE (region of Epirus—Etoloakarnania prefecture)	33.9
	CENTRAL GREECE (including Athens)	22.7
	SOUTH GREECE (region of Peloponnese)	5.7
	ISLANDS	8.5

).

In terms of geographical distribution, participants were 33.9% permanent residents of west Greece, 29.2% of north Greece, 22.7% residents of central Greece, 8.5% residents of the Greek islands, and 5.7% of south Greece. Most of the participants were aged between 18–20, and 21–25 years (38%, and 49%, respectively). Regarding the employment status category, unemployed and single students (72.3% and 93.3%, respectively) dominated the respondents.

2.2. Data Analysis

The questionnaire was built up on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all important, 2 = less important, 3 = moderately important, 4 = quite important, and 5 = very important) [23] to measure the students’ motives related to food choices. Statistical treatment of data was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows (Version 25.0, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA), as has previously been described in detail [24].

3. Results

The results presented in

Table 2. Students’ motives on food consumption regarding health, convenience, sensory appeal, nutritional quality, and ethical concerns.

PREFERENCE REGARDING THE HEALTH OF FOODS in the POST-COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Contains a lot of vitamins and minerals	2.5 *	8.6	26.7	39.7	22.5
Keeps you healthy	1.8	5.6	24.9	42.1	25.6
Is high in protein and fiber	2.6	9.2	27.5	37.0	23.7
PREFERENCE REGARDING THE CONVENIENCE OF FOODS in the POST-COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Takes no time to prepare	3.4	10.1	25.8	34.3	26.4
Is easy to prepare	3.2	10.0	24.0	38.0	24.8
Can be cooked very simply	4.5	11.2	23.0	36.0	25.3
PREFERENCE REGARDING THE SENSORY APPEAL OF FOODS in the POST-COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Looks nice	10.9	21.5	31.2	25.0	11.4
Has a pleasant texture	3.1	8.8	24.7	38.2	25.2
Tastes good	0.3	0.7	5.6	26.4	67.0
PREFERENCE REGARDING THE NUTRITIONAL QUALITY OF FOODS in the POST-COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Contains no artificial ingredients	5.0	19.7	33.5	26.9	14.9
Contains natural ingredients	3.5	9.0	25.1	36.3	26.1
Contains no additives	7.6	19.6	35.7	23.6	13.5
PREFERENCE REGARDING THE ETHICAL ASPECTS OF FOODS in the POST-COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Has the region of origin clearly marked	14.6	25.3	24.5	21.0	14.6
Is packed in an environmentally friendly way	6.6	13.9	25.6	32.6	21.3
Respects the environment	5.5	11.5	24.0	34.4	24.6
PREFERENCE REGARDING WEIGHT CONTROL AND FOODS in the POST COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Is low in calories	13.9	22.4	33.5	20.5	9.7
Is low in fat	10.2	22.3	32.1	23.4	12.0
Helps with weight control	10.7	18.7	26.5	27.2	16.9

* Values represent %.

show that for most of the students, it is quite or very important that the food they consume contains a lot of vitamins (62.2%), a lot of fibers and proteins (60.7%), and can keep them healthy (67.7%). Additionally, it is quite or very important for the participants that the food they consume takes little time to prepare (60.7%), or can be prepared easily (62.8%), and can be cooked very simply (61.3%). Regarding sensory appeal, it is moderately and quite important for the students that their food look nice (56.2%) and have pleasant texture (62.9%), but the most important criterion by far was good taste, with more than 90% of the respondents (93.4%) saying it was quite or very important. While the presence of artificial ingredients and additives moderately concerns the participants (33.5% and 35.7%, respectively), the presence of natural ingredients is quite or very important for them, at 62.33%. It is less important for the students to know the region of origin of the product (25.3%), but care for the environment (59%) and environmentally friendly packaging (53.9%) were quite or very important, too. Finally, regarding weight control, the calories (33.5%) and fat (32.1%) in the food the students consumed did moderately concern them, while it is quite important for them to use food to help controlling their weight (27.2%).

Table S2 depicts the significant (p < 0.05) associations between students’ motives on food consumption and sociodemographic variables. Specifically, regarding the topic of health, associations were observed between age, civil state, and residency [contains a lot of vitamins: age (x² = 27.718, p = 0.006), civil state (x² = 24.482, p = 0.110), and residency (x² = 26.400, p = 0.049)], while the convenience topic did not show significant associations with any of the sociodemographic variables. Furthermore, the other topics studied showed statistically significant associations (p < 0.05) between sociodemographic variables and the questions under review, i.e., sensory appeal [looks nice: gender (x² =23.090, p = 0.000) and civil state (x² = 21.841, p = 0.005); pleasant texture: gender (x² = 27.539, p = 0.000) and age (x² = 28.081, p = 0.005); good taste: gender (x² = 16.256, p = 0.003) and age (x² = 24.731, p = 0.016)], nutritional quality [presence of artificial ingredients: gender (x² = 16.226, p = 0.004), age (x² = 62.366, p = 0.000), civil state (x² = 40.749, p = 0.000), employment status (x² = 17.615, p = 0.001), and residency (x² = 28.570, p = 0.027); presence of natural ingredients: gender (x² = 13.608, p = 0.009), age (x² = 44.855, p = 0.000), and civil state (x² = 40.962, p = 0.001); presence of additives: age (x² = 72.496, p = 0.000), civil state (x² = 47.248, p = 0.000), employment status (x² = 11.357, p = 0.023) and residency (x² = 29.269, p = 0.022)], ethical concerns [marking the region of origin: gender (x² = 12.491, p = 0.014), age (x² = 68.238, p = 0.000), civil state (x² = 36.048, p = 0.000), and employment status (x² = 13.051, p = 0.011); environmentally packaged: gender (x² = 33.856, p = 0.000); respect for the environment: gender (x² = 31.613, p = 0.000)], and weight control [low calories: gender (x² = 10.588, p = 0.032), age (x² = 26.295, p = 0.010), and civil state (x² = 16.443, p = 0.036); low fat: gender (x² = 9.528, p = 0.049) and age (x² = 23.835, p = 0.021); helps to control weight: age (x² = 24.972, p = 0.015)].

As presented in

Table 3. Students’ motives on food consumption regarding mood and stress, familiarity, price, and shopping frequency and behavior.

PREFERENCE REGARDING MOOD AND STRESS AND FOODS in the POST-COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Keeps you awake/alert	5.7 *	13.7	28.1	35.5	17
Cheers you up	2.9	5.7	17.8	41.9	31.7
Helps you to cope with life	2.2	4.1	15.6	39.6	38.5
PREFERENCE REGARDING THE FAMILIARITY OF FOODS in the POST-COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the TRADITIONAL FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Is familiar	5.3	15.1	30.4	35.1	14.1
Is what you usually eat	7.0	18.7	31.9	30.8	11.7
Is like the food you ate when you were a child	12.8	21.9	33.6	20.5	11.2
PREFERENCE REGARDING THE PRICE OF FOODS in the POST-COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Is good value for money	0.8	2.0	8.4	38.1	50.7
Is cheap	1.4	3.9	16.0	41.7	37.0
Is not expensive	1.5	3.4	14.4	38.9	41.8
PREFERENCE REGARDING SHOPPING FREQUENCY AND BEHAVIOR AND FOODS in the POST-COVID-19 era
How important is it to you that the FOOD you eat	Not at all important	Less important	Moderately important	Quite important	Very important
Is purchased from supermarket	7.6	20.9	42.5	21.8	7.2
Is purchased from the local market or grocery	8.5	19.4	34.5	27.3	10.3
Is purchased online	37.5	26.8	23.4	6.8	5.5
Is purchased every week	11.4	20.9	29.4	25.8	12.5
Is purchased every two weeks or more	10.2	21.5	37.1	23.3	7.9
Can be cooked at home	2.5	5.5	17.6	41.4	33.0
Is purchased by delivery	15.4	29.4	34.8	15.5	4.9
Can be eaten at a restaurant or fast food establishment	17.6	30.9	32.7	13.9	4.9
Can be prepared as a fast food	23.4	22.6	27.0	19.3	7.7
Is a “value for money” commodity	8.3	11.1	28.3	32.2	20.1

* Values represent %.

, mood and stress and price seems to be important motives involved in the food choices of students. Specifically, it is quite or very important for students that the food they consume can keep them awake (52.5%) and in a cheerful mood (73.6%), and can help them cope with everyday life (78.1%). Furthermore, price seems to be quite or very important for students, as they look for good value for money in products (88.8%), and products that are inexpensive (80.7%) and actually, cheap (78.7%). On the other hand, familiarity seems to be of less concern to students, since only 49.2% expressed that it is quite or very important to them that the food they consume is familiar; only 42.5% expressed that it was important that the food be something they eat frequently, and only 31.7% wished for the foods to be things that they had eaten in childhood. Finally, regarding shopping frequency and behavior, the students were moderately motivated to consume food that can be purchased from the supermarket (42.5%), a local market (34.5%), online (23.4%), by delivery (34.8%), or eaten at a restaurant/fast food establishment (32.7%). It is only moderately important for them to purchase their food either weekly (29.4%) or every two weeks (37.1%). What is quite or very important for the students now is that they cook the food they eat at home (74.4%) as a full meal, and not as a fast food or snack preparation (only 27%). Only 52.3% of the students expressed that the value for money of their food is quite or very important to them, which is significantly lower when compared with the 88.8% who reported the importance of value for money as an actual price motive recorded above.

The results of the chi-square test presented in Table S3 show significant associations between students’ motives regarding food consumption and their sociodemographic variables. Specifically, regarding the topic of mood and stress, statistically significant associations (p < 0.05) were observed between sociodemographic variables and the questions under review, i.e., keeps me awake: residency (x² = 26.958, p = 0.042), and cheerful mood: gender (x² = 12.296, p = 0.015); meanwhile, for the familiarity and price topics associations were only observed between gender and the question regarding familiarity (x² = 11.604, p = 0.021) and cheapness (x² = 13.397, p = 0.009), respectively. Finally, the topic of shopping frequency and behavior showed the following associations. Purchased every week: age (x² = 33.852, p = 0.001); purchased every two weeks or more: residency (x² = 30.963, p = 0.014); cooked at home: gender (x² = 17.740, p = 0.001), age (x² = 28.694, p = 0.040), and employment status (x² = 14.882, p = 0.005); purchased by delivery: age (x² = 21.485, p = 0.044); and “value for money” commodity: civil state (x² = 21.782, p = 0.005), and residency (x² = 28.485, p = 0.028).

4. Discussion

The results presented above indicate that the students are turning back to the FCMs that they had before COVID-19, and are more or less in a mode of normality, with only minor changes in terms of their preferences.

With regard to health motives, students are leaving behind the decreased levels of physical activity and the increases in junk food consumption recorded during the pandemic [25], and they are now interested again in food that keeps them healthy, containing vitamins, fibers, and proteins. Indeed, before the pandemic, health was viewed as being quite important by college students both in USA and China, as evidenced by the fact that within each group, health was ranked fairly high among the ten FCM factors recorded [26].

With regard to convenience motives, students are leaving behind the instant and frozen foods used during the pandemic [27], with preferences now being for foods that are cooked simply, easily, and with no extra time of preparation. Convenience, including fast food consumption, has been recorded as a general FCM of high priority for college students in developed countries such as the USA for decades now [28], and more recently in developing countries, too.

With regard to sensory appeal motives, students have kept their preferences the same as before [29] and during the COVID-19 era [30], with moderate importance placed on appearance and texture; taste remains one of the most important criteria for food choice overall. Students across the globe, from the USA to China, valued sensory appeal highly before the pandemic [26], suggesting that the appearance, smell, and taste are important to them. It is likely that college students are affected by globalization, thereby seeing a food’s low nutritional content and instead focusing on its appearance.

Regarding nutritional quality motives, students continue to show the strong preference for nutritional foods [31] recorded during the pandemic in many countries, with moderate importance placed on foods with natural ingredients, no additives, and no artificial ingredients. Natural content is viewed differently by college students of different countries [26], with increased preference in countries with well publicized cases of food safety violations [32].

Regarding ethical concerns, similar to their preferences during the pandemic [33], students continue to pay increased attention to the environmental effects of the food, with low interest in the identification of foods’ origins. The low preference for ethical concerns found in this study among college students is in agreement with the results of past studies, both in males and females, in various countries [26]. The contextual cultural factors of each country may be related to these results.

Regarding weight control concerns and the motives of students’ food choices, preferences changed from the increased overall food consumption and consumption of junk food during COVID [34] to foods which primarily help control body weight (and less so to foods with balanced calorie and fat contents). The preference for weight-controlling foods is moderate among college students in this study, similarly to reports from other studies, since they are not concerned about their weight, being young, healthy, and consuming fast food frequently [35]. As globalization continues and exposure to Western ideals of thinness increases, female college students may become more dissatisfied with their weight, even though their body mass index is in the normal range [36,37].

Regarding mood and stress concerns, students are leaving behind the effects of COVID on levels of depression, stress and anxiety (which affected all adults [38]), choosing food which helps them to cope with their life better, and which will keep them awake and in a cheerful mood. Moderate concerns around mood and stress among college students in various countries has also been recorded by others, suggesting that the students’ cultural background does not affect their motives in food choice [26,39].

Regarding familiarity concerns, which helped adult consumers to select the foods they know and trust during the pandemic [40], our results indicate that students are now less motivated by familiarity parameters, such as being familiar with the food, eating what they usually eat, and eating what they remember from their childhood. Previous reports have indicated that male students are more concerned about the familiarity of food compared with female [26].

Price remains the most important food choice motive for students today, as it was before and during the pandemic [41,42]. They are very much interested in price, with positive motives exceeding 80% in the food they choose having a “value for money”, inexpensive, and cheap price if possible. Price is by far the most important motive of choice today, as also reported elsewhere [43]. The high priority given to price by students is very much related to their financial situations and whether or not they are independent financially (having a job in parallel with their studies, or being supported financially by their parents) [26]. Significant price shocks, such as those currently happening worldwide, negatively affect the consumption patterns of low-income college students [44].

Regarding shopping frequency and behavior motives, students have returned to their choices before the pandemic compared to their choices within the COVID-19 lockdown period, which included decreases in shopping frequency, and increases in online purchases and deliveries [45,46]. They are now purchasing their food with almost equal preference from the supermarket, local market, online, and delivery, purchasing the food once a week or once every two weeks. One specific motive that changed during the pandemic [19,47] and continues to rank highly in the preferences of students is the home cooking of full meals, and not only of snacks/fast food. Eating at a restaurant continues to rank lower in the students’ preferences. Finally, it is quite interesting that while students are very much interested in the value for money of the actual price of the food, they are not equally as concerned about the value for money of the actual commodity of the food.

In this new global era, in which the world is changing drastically, college students, with their food preferences of today, demonstrate the future of FCMs. Based on the above discussion, raising consumer awareness of the incentives behind food choices is of paramount importance now. Motivations such as sensory appeal, taste, and food presentation, can act as a one-way street for emotional eating in the new era, since they have remained important before, during, and after the pandemic. It appears that not only families but also students feel secure and have feelings of good self esteem when preparing a pleasant dish, bringing friends together, and creating a context of daily stability [7]. They know what to expect with familiar dishes, and can assess whether hunger and nutritional needs will be met.

5. Conclusions

Our data presented above indicate that the FCMs of college students after the COVID-19 pandemic are returning to pre-COVID-19 choices, with the changes in motives recorded during the pandemic slowly disappearing. Price remains the most important factor in the purchasing of food, a motive which was always at the top of the selection criteria before and after the pandemic. The only motive which has changed positively due to the lockdown and continues as such (even for students) is the cooking of full meals at home, avoiding visits to restaurants. The lack of exercise and the choice of junk foods has now changed to healthy quality food choices, similar to before the pandemic, with significant attention again being paid to nutritional quality, weight control concerns, environmental impact, familiarity, and good mood-inducing food.

The constraints of the study include its mostly female participants, which is, however, common for many related studies. Furthermore, the Greek nationality of the college students is a limitation, and more studies with similar questionnaires should be performed in other countries to assess the global validity of the findings. Another limitation of the study is that it has been conducted one year after the end of the pandemic, with more studies required in the subsequent two and three years in order to gain an overall insight into the findings.

The results may be used by the food industry and food service providers as a basic guide to the market of the young generation aged 20 to 30 years old. It is also useful for the industry in general because it gives a first indication of the habits of future adults, as today’s college students will grow older and become part of the mainstream workforce.