Feeding People in a Crisis: The UK Food System and the Covid-19 Pandemic

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

'Panic buying' at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic generated enduring media images of empty supermarket shelves and calls for food rationing. The fragility of the 'just-in-time' food system was seemingly exposed yet, as the pandemic progressed in the UK, there were remarkably few food shortages. This book reveals the changing patterns of food provision in the UK during that period, looking at how diets changed and how retail, processing, distribution and production businesses adapted. But beneath the apparent logistical success story, there were injustices as the more vulnerable struggled to access good quality food and some businesses received inadequate help.

The authors consider the winners and losers in a time of rapid social change, the lasting impacts on the UK food system and lessons to be learned for a food system dependent on imports and large retailers and with a high burden of diet-related health issues.