Context

During the pandemic, there were significant changes in people's daily routines and habits, including the way they shopped for and prepared food. For example, some people may have started cooking at home more often due to stay-at-home orders or concerns about going out to eat, which could have led to an increase in clicks on food-related topics as people sought information on cooking and recipe ideas. On the other hand, some people may have been less interested in food-related topics due to stress or other distractions related to the pandemic, which could have led to a decrease in pageviews.

Let's first have a look at how different countries were affected by COVID-19, to get an idea of the timeline of the pandemic.

January 2020

First COVID-19 cases in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Korea, and Japan.

February 2020

First COVID-19 cases in Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. First deaths in Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Korea, and Japan.

School closure in Korea and Japan. Public events banned in Japan.

March 2020

First COVID-19 cases in Serbia. First deaths in Germany, Serbia, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

School closure and public events banned in European countries. Beginning of lockdown in all countries considered, except for the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Korea, and Japan, which never had lockdown.

April 2020

Back to normality in Korea.

May 2020

Back to normality in Serbia, Finland, and the Netherlands.

June 2020

Back to normality in Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Japan.

July 2020

Back to normality in France and Germany.

Using Wikipedia pageviews and Google Trends data from 2018 to 2022, we will investigate the evolution of food habits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to address the following questions.

Healthy food

Did healthy food become more popular, in an effort to preserve one’s health, or did unhealthy food receive the most attention?

World cuisines

When trying out new dishes, did individuals become more interested in their own history and traditions, or did they want to explore the cuisine of other cultures?

Food delivery services

Did mobility restrictions during the pandemic influence the frequency of food delivery orders? Did delivery services permanently become part of most people's lives?