CONSUMPTION OF ULTRA-PROCESSED FOODS BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ACCORDING TO THE REGIONS OF BRAZIL

Abstract

The objective of this study was to verify the prevalence of consumption of ultra-processed foods before, during, and after the Covid-19 pandemic according to the regions of the country. The study design was ecological, using secondary data from the telephone survey on surveillance of risk and protective factors for chronic diseases, in the public domain and freely accessible in the electronic environment from the Integrated Health Surveillance Platform. The variable evaluated was consumption of ultra-processed foods by capitals of Brazilian states and after calculating the averages for the regional (Midwest, Northeast, North, Southeast and South) and national (Brazil) strata and pre-pandemic (2019), pandemic (2020 to 2022) and post-pandemic (2023) periods. Considering the three periods evaluated, there was an increase in the consumption of ultra-processed foods in all regions of Brazil and in its entirety between the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, and the opposite was observed in the pandemic and post-pandemic periods, with the exception of the North region. In the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, the South region had the highest prevalence of consumption of ultra-processed foods (21.6% and 22.2%, respectively) and in the post-pandemic period it was the North region (22.2%). Between the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, the Northeast region recorded the highest percentage of change (22.3%) and the South region the lowest (2.8%). When comparing the pre-pandemic period with the post-pandemic period, the North Region had the highest percentage (10.4%) and the South Region the lowest (-4.3%).