Prácticas de consumo de alimentos en los hogares cuencanos durante la cuarentena ocasionada por el virus COVID-19

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has had deep impacts in economic, social, environmental, and many more aspects worldwide. In several countries, among them Ecuador, quarantine has been taken as an important measure to reduce the contagions. This period influenced the consumption, specifically, on the consumption of food in the homes. Consumption and feeding have been studied in different fields such as Sociology, which has developed several previous researches about food consumption. However, this topic has not been studied in crisis contexts. That’s why, given the sanitary emergency, it is necessary to research how food consumption is presented in a context never lived before. The aim of this research is to analyze comparatively the consumption practices of food in homes of Cuenca, Ecuador, before and during the quarantine caused by Covid-19. A qualitative approach was applied, through a methodological design of the study case. The study case was holistic, multiple and exploratory. There were analyzed two cases of each socioeconomic status: high, middle and low; it means six cases. Techniques such as questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and documentary photography were used for data collection. Results reveal that consumption practices of food include domestic chores distribution, purchase practices, eating habits and self-consumption activities. There is an evident division of roles in food purchase practices: mothers are responsible for almost all of those chores. To avoid the contagion of Covid-19, purchase practices changed in homes. In this context, the lack of availability and access to food affected the most to the lowest status. Eating habits changed in order to have a healthy diet; furthermore, these habits were conditioned by the availability of food. On the other hand, self-consumption activities increased. Homes prefer to sow their food as an alternative to providing food and as a form of entertainment. All in all, it is possible to assume that consumption practices of food in homes of Cuenca, were modified due the pandemic and at the same time, were conditioned by the socioeconomic characteristics of each home