New cooking, drinking and wastage habits – has COVID-19 helped the green cause?

New cooking, drinking and wastage habits – has COVID-19 helped the green cause? QuMind communities share what UK consumers think.

It is unsurprising that for many of us our food habits have changed in the past few weeks and half of us report we are cooking more home-made food (50%) and doing more batch-cooking. Many of us also have more time to get creative with food choices, rather than relying of ready meals (19% are eating less ready meals) “I’m cooking more from the scratch and trying new recipe to bring some excitement in cooking as well” was a typical response.

With the tightened restrictions, many of us are re-framing the way we shop for and use food because we are shopping for groceries less. More than a third of us are throwing less food away (36%), and more than half of us are freezing fresh food so that it lasts longer (55%). We are having to get creative to use up odds and ends to avoid creating waste, and lessening the need to go shopping. “We’re discovering things in the freezer we’d completely forgotten about & trying to use up as much as possible before going out to shop” is a common thread we are seeing.

Has COVID-19 helped the green cause?

SOURCE: QUMIND UK COMMUNITY – MINDMOVER CONNECT

For some, the increase in home cooking has led to the feeling of eating more healthily (27% report they are eating more healthily). However, others are choosing to snack more (32%) and drink more alcohol (19%), often because it acts as a comforter, or an outlet for boredom “I am a comfort eater so when I’m worried or bored I eat a lot of junk food mostly sweets, chocolate & cakes. I do know I’m not hungry it must just be a coping strategy to get me through this worrying time”.

So many positive trends are emerging, and habits will be changing post lock down.

If you want to delve further into these trends or use the QuMind self-serve tool to dig into your own questions, please contact [email protected].

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