Cited by 476Food Waste Reduction and SustainabilityNutrition, Health and Food BehaviorAgriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 34 of the 40 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 26 of the 66 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

COVID-19 virus outbreak lockdown: What impacts on household food wastage?

Open access
Jribi, Sarra, Ben Ismail, Hanen, Doggui, Darine, Debbabi, Hajer·2020·Environment, Development and Sustainability

Abstract

The 2019-2020 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a public health issue. Lockdown is among options suggested to reduce spread of the virus. This study aimed to determining the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on Tunisian consumer awareness, attitudes and behaviors related to food wastage. An online survey was conducted during the first 2 weeks of COVID-19 lockdown. The survey collected information on demographic data, awareness and attitudes toward food waste, food purchase behavior and household food expenditure estimation; extent of household food waste; willingness and information needs to reduce food waste. This study included 284 respondents. About 89% of respondents claimed to be aware of food waste, and the COVID-19 lockdown would impact for 93% of respondents, their waste levels, and for 80%, their grocery shopping habits. Interestingly, the COVID-19 lockdown improved food shopping performances and pushed toward a positive behavioral change regarding food wastage: 85% respondents declared nothing of what they bought would be discarded, and most of the respondents have set up a strategy of saving, storing and eating leftovers. The most cited reasons given for discarding food were overcooking, inappropriate storage and overbuying. Consumers' changes in food waste prevention might be probably driven more by the socioeconomical context of the COVID-19 lockdown (i.e. food availability, restricted movements, loss of income), than by a pro-environmental concern. Finally, our study pointed out the consumers' needs of information for taking further action. In conclusion, our study can constitute a basis to further promote household food waste prevention behavior, outlasting the COVID-19 crisis.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This online survey of 284 Tunisian consumers during the first two weeks of COVID-19 lockdown examined how confinement affected household food waste awareness and practices. It reports that most respondents said lockdown changed their waste levels and shopping habits, with many adopting saving, storage, and leftover-eating strategies, though the authors attribute these shifts mainly to socioeconomic pressures rather than environmental concern.

Key findings

  • 89% of respondents said they were aware of food waste; 93% said lockdown would affect their waste levels, and 80% said it changed their grocery shopping habits.
  • 85% stated that none of the food they bought would be discarded; 58% usually discarded a low share of purchased food, 29.7% none, 8.2% a reasonable amount, and 3.9% too much.
  • For uneaten food, 54% ate it the next day, 18% gave it to domestic animals, 13% froze it, 3% donated it, 1% composted it, and 10% discarded it. The most cited reasons for discarding food were overcooking (35%), long refrigerator storage (30%), and overbuying (10%).
  • 48% were ready to change their food-waste behavior, 24% said they probably would, 27% said they already did what they could, and 1% would do nothing; 24% wanted information on environmental impacts and 10% on economic impacts, while 25% did not know what they needed.

Methods

  • A self-administered online questionnaire in French was conducted in Tunisia from March 24 to April 7, 2020, covering the first two weeks of COVID-19 lockdown. It had 23 single- and multiple-choice questions across six sections plus sociodemographic items; recruitment was voluntary via institutional websites, social media, and email, and pupils/students living with parents were excluded.
  • The study included 284 respondents: 72% women, 54% in households with more than four members, 77% professionally active, and 96% highly educated.
  • Analysis used frequency counts and percentages in Microsoft Excel, with chi-square tests of independence in GraphPad Prism version 8 and significance set at p < 0.05; survey weights were applied in chi-square analyses.

Limitations

  • Stated: the non-probabilistic voluntary online sample cannot represent the adult Tunisian population; online surveys exclude people without internet or comfort with technology, such as low-income, less educated, or elderly individuals, and do not allow in-depth analysis.
  • Stated: self-reported waste levels are likely underreported while efforts are overreported, and the food-category waste estimates should be interpreted cautiously; the authors recommend qualitative follow-up.
  • Evident: the design relies on self-report and future intentions rather than objective waste measurement, and the sample’s skew toward women, educated, and professionally active respondents limits generalizability.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s10668-020-00740-y

Cites

34 of 34 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

61 Own result · 16 Sources not found · 15 Own interpretation · 8 Supported · 7 Partly supported · 7 No full text of the sources · 5 Not checked yet · 3 Own method · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 69 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 26
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 23
  • Not yet classified. 9
53 of 53
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    No previous study has investigated the link between lockdown or quarantine and household food waste management.

    “To the best of our knowledge, no previous study investigated the link between lockdown or quarantine and household food waste management.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Tunisians face food insecurity because of the consecutive economic crisis, with 15.2% poverty.

    “Because of the consecutive economical crisis, Tunisians (15.2% of poverty) face food insecurity.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    In most countries, government announcement of lockdown led to panic buying of food and anticipated shortages of goods and services.

    “In most countries, government announcement of lockdown has led to a panic buying of food, to anticipated shortages of goods and services.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The COVID-19 lockdown led to a loss of income-earning opportunities, mainly for independent workers.

    “COVID-19 lockdown has led to a loss of income-earning opportunities, mainly for independent workers which could cause a contraction of consumption.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    There was a fear of food shortages that impaired food availability during the COVID-19 lockdown.

    “The change of behavior was probably associated with a loss of income and to a fear of food shortages, impairing food availability.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Consumers worry about food poisoning when making food discard decisions.

    “Consumers worry about food poisoning when making food discard decisions.”
6 of 6

Citations

Cites

Show all 40 references

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Dalilawati, Z., & Hassan, K. A. (2019). Factors Influencing household food waste behaviour in Malaysia. International Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management, 3, 56–71.
  2. TAP (Tunisia Africa Press Agency) (2020). Coronavirus: La moyenne des achats quotidiens de produits alimentaires, multipliée par 10. https://www.tap.info.tn/fr/Portail-Economie/12435385-coronavirus-la. Accessed 7 April 2020.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 401–476 of 476

Metadata

Authors
Jribi, S., Ben Ismail, H., Doggui, D., & Debbabi, H.
Affiliations
University of Carthage (TN)
Corresponding author
Debbabi, Hajer
Venue
Environment, Development and Sustainability
Published
2020-04-19
Volume
22
Issue
5
Pages
3939-3955
ISSN
  • 1387-585X (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-2975
OpenAlex
W3016757822
Cited by
473
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 119 · 2021: 145 · 2020: 52
FWCI
62.60
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Environment Development and Sustainability (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
Keywords
COVID-19 lockdown, household food waste, food waste prevention, consumer awareness, consumer attitudes, food purchase behavior, food expenditure, leftover food, food storage, information needs, Tunisia

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-09-28, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-09-28 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review