Major concerns regarding food services based on news media reports during the COVID-19 outbreak using the topic modeling approach

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases were first reported in December 2019, in China, and an increasing number of cases have since been detected all over the world. The purpose of this study was to collect significant news media reports on food services during the COVID-19 crisis and identify public communication and significant concerns regarding COVID-19 for suggesting future directions for the food industry and services. SUBJECTS/METHODS: News articles pertaining to food services were extracted from the home pages of major news media websites such as BBC, CNN, and Fox News between March 2020 and February 2021. The retrieved data was sorted and analyzed using Python software. RESULTS: The results of text analytics were presented in the format of the topic label and category for individual topics. The food and health category presented the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food and health, such as an increase in delivery services. The policy category was indicative of a change in government policy. The lifestyle change category addressed topics such as an increase in social media usage. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to analyze major news media (i.e., BBC, CNN, and Fox News) data related to food services in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Text analytics research on the food services domain revealed different categories such as food and health, policy, and lifestyle change. Therefore, this study contributes to the body of knowledge on food services research, through the use of text analytics to elicit findings from media sources.