Acesso à informação, preocupações, mitos e verdades sobre segurança alimentar durante a pandemia de covid-19

: estudo de caso em Portugal

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemics raised several questions related to SARS-CoV-2 behaviour, mainly related to its prevention and transmission, with growing concern about the possibility of contagion through food. In addition, there was an increase in the circulation of information related to the virus by the media and the population which has not necessarily been validated and that could have determined habits and behaviours. In this context, the aim of this work was to identify the main doubts and concerns of the Portuguese population regarding food safety during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to verify how these were clarify and how the information related to the transmission and prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection influenced the habits and behaviours of the studied population. For this, a survey was developed consisting of questions to collect sociodemographic data from the population studied and questions to identify doubts, means of clarification, habits, behaviours and myths and truths about COVID-19. The survey was available online during the months of June and October 2020 and the results were analysed using the IBM® SPSS® version 27.0 software with generation of frequency tables and appropriate variable association tests. Based on the analysis of the results, aspects related to food handling and the possibility of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through food were identified as the main doubts of the survey participants. Mostly, the doubts were clarified through television and consultation of materials released by official sources. In addition, an increase in the frequency of hand washing and disinfection before and after arranging purchases and disinfection of the environment where food is handled was reported, as well as greater concern with product packages and durability compared to the period prior to the pandemic. Regarding myths and concerns disseminated about COVID-19 during the first wave of pandemic, it was observed that most of the participants agreed with the truths and disagreed with the myths, which seems to indicate that the participant population was able to identify incorrect information and adopt the most adequate behaviour considering current knowledge.

Date of Award	24 Jan 2022
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Paula Teixeira (Supervisor) & Rui Leandro Maia (Co-Supervisor)