Health & Wellness

In December, COVID-19 broke records across the US with infection rates, hospitalizations and death tolls climbing to a record high. While the pandemic continues to rage across the country, it has become detrimental for retailers and manufacturers to consider the direct, physical effects of COVID-19 on consumers and how common lingering symptoms can dramatically impact the way they shop at the grocery store.

Covid-positive households are altering their eating habits

With loss of sense of taste and smell being among the most commonly experienced symptoms, consumers diagnosed with COVID-19 are modifying their eating habits as they adjust to their altered senses. As a result, people who experienced symptoms of COVID-19 are shifting away from certain foods and flavors at the grocery store and toward categories that emphasize immunity-boosting benefits in an effort to maintain or improve their health.

In order to determine how infected shoppers are shifting as a result of lingering symptoms, Nielsen conducted a survey in December, 2020 to determine granular behavioral shifts among those who tested positive for COVID-19 and were still experiencing symptoms as a result of their diagnosis.