Table 3.

Themes associated with culinary and dietary behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns.

Themes	Illustrative quotes
Changes in cooking behaviours
Increased household cooking	“… In lockdown I had to cook more because everyone was at home and even the frequency of cooking food increased.” (P30, 4A, 1C) “Yeah, I started spending more time in the kitchen during lockdown.” (P22, 5A, 2C) “During lockdown there was more food preparation as the whole family used to stay at home.” (P1, 5A) “… Before the lockdown I had to cook only one main meal that is dinner … But after lockdown I had to cook three meals since my husband was not going to office and son was not going to school and they were always hungry …” (P33, 2A, 1C)
Involvement of children and male members in food-related activities	“… During lockdown my maid was not coming so everyone used to help little … little … for example, chopping vegetables and all … my daughter used to knead the dough but earlier could not help as she had to go to college.” (P26, 4A) “… I cooked by myself but sometimes the men (i.e. husband and father-in-law) in the family helped in cutting vegetables … Before lockdown they did not touch anything in the kitchen but during lockdown, they helped a lot.” (P27, 5A, 2C)
Experimentation in the kitchen	“After the Government announced lockdown, I was 24 h in the kitchen only making new items, trying new things … I did baking and all, which I had never tried before and it was fun! Cakes, muffins, even ‘pav’ (bun) I made. So many things I tried … I was watching YouTube, calling my friends, sisters, mother for the recipes.” (P15, 3A) “I tried baking a cake. I tried it for the first time. I didn't try it before as I did not have so much time for it. So, lockdown was the only time wherein I could try something different in cooking like a cake which I wanted to try since a very long time.” (P21, 4A, 1C) “… We definitely tried many new varieties of dishes as consumption of outside food was stopped. So as per our mood to eat something tempting and new we used to cook it at home.” (P10, 4A)
Changes in meal planning and food shopping behaviours
Adoption of meal planning skills	“Yeah, we used to decide beforehand only during lockdown like we will cook this in the morning or like we have this particular vegetable available so will cook it in the lunch. So, I did the planning because we had no other option, also there was free time…No…No… I never planned any meals before lockdown. Even in the morning if any ingredient was missing, the shops were always open, so it was not an issue. My husband used to go for morning walk so I used to tell him that please bring this particular thing while returning. So, it was not like this during lockdown. There was a huge change in the scenario.” (P23, 4A, 1C) “… we started making list. I used to visit the store once in 8 days … Never prepared any list on normal days …” (P3, 3A, 1C)
Increase in online food shopping	“… I normally go once in 2 days for vegetables but during lockdown we didn't have any other option so went once in a week to avoid contact with more people.” (P32, 5A) “… I tried to stock up for at least 10 days. For vegetables I use to bring more potatoes as they can be stored for longer period, and then adjust accordingly. I couldn't go out as often as before … We avoided going outside as much as possible.” (P13, 3A) “… Previously we used to go to malls and supermarkets quite often. It was fun going out like a stressbuster. But now there is fear of infection, social distancing; because when we go out there are so many people we meet and we come in contact with so many of them but we never know if they are infected … so to avoid that we needed to be at home and go out less for shopping …” (P15, 3A) “Before lockdown, we never ordered anything online but because of crowd and fear of infection we ordered stuff online from D-Mart (Name of supermarket)” (P4, 4A, 1C)
Bulk buying	“Yes, earlier in March I was in tension whether I will get the flour, dal (pulse), rice or not. So, I kept full stock of everything.” (P15, 3A)
Shortage of food items	“… I was not able to find biscuits because their stocks used to get finished very soon … Sometimes I could not find apples, and so I had to buy other fruits like sapota and watermelon …” (P26, 4A) “… We had an issue in getting fruits and vegetables. Some days no vegetables were available, so we had to prepare moong dal (Whole Green Gram Pulse).” (P1, 5A)
Changes in food choices and behaviours
Reduced consumption of outside home food	“… The only change I felt was that we didn't eat out for more than six months I would say. So, everything was cooked at home and therefore it was obviously healthier and more nutritious. We did not even order any food from the restaurant because of the fear of infection … Definitely we missed eating outside food and especially my daughter missed it a lot.” (P12, 3A)
Increased variety of home-cooked meals	“Yes, there was a difference i.e. everyone wanted to eat different food items, so I had to try different recipes. Moreover, in ordinary days we can bring something from outside and eat it like a vada pav (a savoury item typical to Mumbai) or pizza, etc. but we were not getting these things during the lockdown but everyone wanted to eat it, so it was made at home. I made pizza, samosa …” (P2, 3A, 1C)
Increase in snacking and overall food intake	“Snacking increased terribly!!! Basically, munching increased. I mean let's have something since we are just sitting. If we are occupied with something, we tend not to feel hungry. Since, everyone was free at home, we used to play cards, and so we needed something for munching continuously, like popcorn, nachos, packaged food etc …” (P9, 4A, 1C) “Yes, during the lockdown the need for everything had increased twice, like earlier snacks were made only once a day, but then since everybody was at home and everybody was hungry, so we had to prepare more snacks …” (P6, 5A, 1C) “I tried so many new items so food consumption would have definitely increased as compared to earlier …” (P7, 3A, 2C) “… Meal portion had also increased … Yes … Yes … we were eating more … the quantity increased.” (P26, 4A)
Determinants of food choices	Health and immunity: “By extra immunity boosters, I mean we were eating more salads, using more lemons … means in the form of lemon juice or lemon sherbet (cordial) … Secondly, we reduced spicy foods and avoided refined flour products like breads and other items.” (P21, 4A, 1C) “… Since there wasn't any physical exercise, I thought of preparing healthy stuff. I ensured not to use any refined wheat flour, sugar in cooking … The dosas (a pancake prepared with rice and pulse batter) which I used to prepare with rice have been completely replaced with ragi (a millet with high calcium content) …” (P28, 3A, 1C) “Nowadays people are into fast food. I was the same but due to COVID I became health conscious and got into healthy eating like I started preparing and eating more veggies, fruits, green leafy vegetables and all … Junk food, oily (food high in fat) food, restaurant food was stopped, and we had as much homemade food as we could.” (P14, 4A)
Determinants of food choice (continued)	Family members' preferences and taste: “… But since everyone was at home during the lockdown, so cooking was based on everyone's desires …” (P17, 3A, 1C) Food availability: “… Whatever was available that was made” (P3, 3A, 1C) “According to whatever was available we used to prepare our meals.” (P32, 5A)
Family meals - a new norm	“Before lockdown we used to eat together only on weekends as my son was in hostel and, daughter in college, but during the lockdown we ate all our meals together. We got a lot of family time … It was a blessing in disguise! I enjoyed that very much …” (P14, 4A) “We used to eat together; we were very happy. Because we rarely get a chance to do that. Earlier I had my office, girls were somewhere else, etc., so we rarely got the chance to eat together. So, it was cooking and eating together. We felt really nice.” (P8, 4A)