The Geo-Demographics of European Consumers’ Food Behaviour in the New Age of Disruption

The COVID-19 pandemic, unlike the 2007–2008 financial crisis, was a supply side shock, now sharply exacerbated by the Ukrainian war. Drawing on relevant sources, this chapter illustrates the resulting impacts on changes in consumers’ food behaviour during the first wave of the pandemic, based on a large sample of households from 12 countries spread across Europe. Unlike most previous studies, this analysis takes place at European level revealing large scale general trends. Findings show that the food system, like many other strategic consumer markets, has experienced shortages, panic-buying, hoarding and a focus on products both with longer shelf-lives and that help to reduce stress. However, there have been wildly different outcomes related to socio-demographics, household income and location. As a result, and supported by digital technologies, new spatial dynamics and relationships are emerging that exemplify important lessons for all food system actors, in particular significant shifts towards more local-regional production and supply. This is accompanied by much greater consumer awareness of the importance of food and involvement in its preparation, mediated through geography and the socio-demographic characteristics of household consumption. A strong driver is the increasingly local orientation of work and business transformed by a resurgence of hybrid working