Food and nutritional (in)security of gastronomy students at a public university in Ceará

Abstract

The food and nutritional security of a group of people is directly influenced by socioeconomic descriptors, such as gender, income, employment and education. Furthermore, food insecurity is a study topic that is part of the scientific repertoire of the academic gastronomy community in Brazil. Given this, the objective is to evaluate food and nutritional security levels or insecurity on undergraduate and postgraduate students in gastronomy at a public university in Ceará - Brazil, and to compare these findings with data from the general population of Ceará. A sample of 25 participants was utilized in the study, wich employed the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale (EBIA) and a socioeconomic questionnaire with the income social descriptors, gender, age, skin color, education and employment status. The contextualization highlights the relevance of addressing food safety in gastronomy degrees, especially after the health crisis caused by COVID-19. The results indicated that 56% of the sample exhibited levels of food insecurity, which was comparable to the findings from the Ceará population. This analysis revealed that social descriptors, such as employment status and income, as well as skin color, were significant predictors of food insecurity. These findings highlight the influence of social factors on the prevalence of food insecurity among students in the academic environment of gastronomy.