Journal of Nutrition and Health

The Korean Nutrition Society (한국영양학회)
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The association between COVID-19 and changes in food consumption in Korea: analyzing the microdata of household income and expenditure from Statistics Korea 2019-2022

코로나19와 한국 식품 소비 변화의 관계: 2019-2022년 통계청 소비자 가계동향조사를 활용하여

  • Haram Eom (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Seoul National University) ;
  • Kyounghee Kim (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Seoul National University) ;
  • Seonghwan Cho (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Seoul National University) ;
  • Junghoon Moon (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Seoul National University)
  • 엄하람 (서울대학교 농경제사회학부 ) ;
  • 김경희 (서울대학교 농경제사회학부 ) ;
  • 조성환 (서울대학교 농경제사회학부 ) ;
  • 문정훈 (서울대학교 농경제사회학부 )
  • Received : 2023.04.27
  • Accepted : 2024.02.05
  • Published : 2024.02.28
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Abstract

Purpose: The main goal of this study was to identify the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on grocery purchases (i.e., fresh and processed foods by grain, vegetable, fruit, seafood, and meat categories) in Korea. To understand the specific impact of COVID-19, the study period was divided into 3 segments: PRE-COVID-19, INTER-COVID-19, and POST-COVID-19. Methods: We used the microdata of household income and expenditure from Statistics Korea (KOSTAT), representing households across the country. The data comprised monthly grocery expenditure data from January 2019 to September 2022. First, we compared the PRE-COVID-19 period to INTER-COVID-19 and then INTER-COVID-19 to POST-COVID-19 and used multiple regression analysis. The covariates used were the gender and age of the head of the household, the household's monthly income, the number of family members, the price index, and the month (dummy variable). Results: The expenditures on all grocery categories except fresh fruit increased from PRE-COVID-19 to INTER-COVID-19. From INTER-COVID-19 to POST-COVID-19, almost all grocery category spending declined, with processed meat being the only exception. Most purchases of protein sources, increased during INTER-COVID-19 compared to PRE-COVID-19, while ham/sausage/bacon for meat protein, fish cakes and canned seafood for seafood protein, and soy milk for plant-based protein did not decrease during POST-COVID-19 compared to INTER-COVID-19. Conclusion: These results show an overall increase in in-home grocery expenditure during COVID-19 due to an increase in eating at home, followed by a decrease in this expenditure in the POST-COVID-19 period. Among the trends, the protein and highly processed convenience food categories did not see a decline in spending during the POST-COVID-19 period, which is a reflection of the preferences of consumers in the post-COVID-19 period.

코로나19 팬데믹 발생과 엔데믹은 사람들의 식품 소비 패턴에 큰 변화를 유발한 사건으로 여겨진다. 코로나19 발생 이전부터 코로나19가 종식된 시점까지 국내 소비자들의 식생활이 어떻게 변모되어 왔는지 파악할 필요성이 있다. 이에 코로나19 기간을 구분하고 기간에 따른 국내 소비자들의 식품 지출액을 실증적으로 분석하여, 식품 소비 행태를 파악하고자 하였다. 본 연구에서는 코로나19 기간을 세 가지로 구분하였으며, 분석을 위해 통계청 가계동향조사 마이크로데이터의 월별 식료품 지출액 자료를 2019년 1월부터 2022년 9월까지 활용하였다. 코로나19 기간이 구분되는 두 지점은 국내 첫 코로나19 확진자가 발생한 2020년 1월과 유행 규모가 둔화하고 사회적 거리두기 정책이 완화된 2022년 3월로 설정하였다. 즉, 2019년 1월부터 2020년 1월까지는 PRE-코로나19 (T1), 2020년 2월부터 2022년 2월까지는 INTER-코로나1 9(T2), 2022년 3월부터 2022년 9월까지는 POST-코로나19 (T3)이다. 식품 카테고리는 신선곡물과 가공곡물, 신선채소와 가공채소, 신선과일과 가공과일, 신선수산과 가공수산, 신선축산과 가공축산 지출액을 분석하였으며, 추가적으로 육류 단백질 급원식품 (붉은 육류, 흰살 육류, 햄/소시지/베이컨), 수산 단백질 급원식품 (생선류, 연체류, 갑각류/조개류, 해조류, 어묵/맛살, 수산물통조림), 식물성 단백질 급원식품 (두류, 두부, 두유) 지출액을 분석하였다. 각 식품 카테고리 및 급원식품의 T1 대비 T2의 지출액 변화와 T2 대비 T3의 지출액 변화를 다중회귀분석으로 결과를 도출하였다. 분석 결과, 전반적인 가정 내 식료품 지출액 변화는 T1 대비 T2에 증가하였으며, T2 대비 T3에 감소하는 모습을 보였다. T1에서 T2로 시간이 흐르며 내식이 확대되며 식료품 지출액이 증가할 때, 신선과일과 수산 단백질 (갑각류/조개류) 지출액만 증가하지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 반면에, T2에서 T3로 시간이 흐르며 내식이 축소되며 식료품 지출액이 감소할 때, 가공육류와 수산 및 육류 단백질 급원식품 (즉, 햄/소시지/베이컨, 어묵/맛살, 수산물통조림) 지출액만 감소하지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 더불어, T1, T2, T3 시간에 따라 식료품 지출액이 변화할 때 식물성 단백질 급원식품인 두유의 지출액은 변동이 없는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 분석 결과는 코로나19라는 전례 없었던 사건이 확산되고 종식되는 시간에 따라 국내 소비자들의 식료품 지출액에 미친 영향을 보여준다.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), Korea, under the Information Technology Research Center (ITRC) support program (RS-2024-00259703) supervised by the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP).

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