Consequences of COVID-19 Lockdown on Food Insecurity and Food Quality in Two Mediterranean Countries (Spain and Morocco)

Abstract

Food security is defined as a state in which all people at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. The general objective of this work was to assess the situation of food insecurity and its impact on the quantity and quality of food consumption during lockdown in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify the determinants associated with the different food insecurity (FI) categories on a sample of 2227 people (1168 people from Spain and 1059 people from Morocco). Food insecurity (FI) assessed by the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) were compared in both countries, controlling for the effect of sociodemographic variables, age, gender, marital status, and education level. The mean HFIAS was 0.53 in the Spanish and 3.55 in the Moroccan samples (p < 0.001). Only 2.1% of the Spanish sample were in a situation of severe insecurity against 15.5% in Morocco (p < 0.001). Moroccans with moderate and severe food insecurity decreased their consumption of meat, fish, eggs, nuts, legumes, and fruits. The risk of food insecurity was higher in men than in women, in separated or divorced people, in people with secondary and middle education, and in younger people.