Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about some changes in consumption preferences and nutritional habits as well as lifestyles of individuals, such as education, working system, and social relationships, especially due to having to stay at home. In this study, the change in animal food consumption dispositions of students who had to stay at home during the pandemic and received online education was examined compared to the pre-pandemic period. In the study, since face-to-face teaching-learning activities were suspended, an online questionnaire was used to collect the study data from a total of 380 students registered at Kafkas University. The average monthly income of the participants and the share they allocated to the total food and animal products expenditures in the budget were determined as 539.64±21.00$, 132.73±5.08$, and 62.18±2.67$, respectively. Although the annual chicken meat consumption amount did not change according to the income levels of the students, it was determined that the consumption of animal products, such as beef, mutton-lamb, milk-yogurt, cheese, and eggs increased as the income level increased. During the pandemic period, the food consumption of 55.3% of the participants and the animal products consumption of 35.8% increased. On the other hand, it was determined that the consumption of food and animal products increased as the income level increased during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. During the pandemic period, it was determined that red meat and salami-sausages consumption of 31.8% of the students decreased by 37.90% and 42.15%, respectively, but that the chicken meat consumption of 31.3% of the students and milk and dairy products consumption of 37.9% increased by 31.02% and 39.17%, respectively. As a result, it was determined that there were significant changes in the nutritional habits of the students during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was determined that there were significant increases in the consumption of animal products other than red meat. The primary reason why red meat consumption did not increase is thought to be due to the high price of the product compared to consumers’ income levels.