According to Nielsen’s data, Australians collectively spent 63,555 hours on food and cooking websites on the 29th March, an increase of 71% compared to the 1st March.

On the 22nd March – between Nielsen’s two reference dates – the Australian government closed clubs, pubs, restaurants and cafes, and encouraged Australians to stay home as much as possible in order to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Growth was led by the younger 13-24 audience, which had surged by 144% month-on-month as of the 27th March.

The 25-39 age group was up 94% month-on-month on the 28th, while the 40-54 age bracket increased by 64% and the 55+ age group rose by 66%. While there has been a sharp rise across the board, Sunday has remained the most popular day to look at cooking websites, followed by Saturdays.

Nagi Maehashi, owner of the Australian food blog recipetineats.com, said: “Traffic has doubled since the government brought in restrictions in March, and increased even more so over Easter – so many people made their own hot cross buns this year!”

Baking in particular is proving popular – the volume of flour sold rose by 156% year-on-year in March 2020.

Nielsen’s report said that in the past four weeks Australians have stockpiled enough flour to last approximately 65 days, while bread mix sales have more than doubled the expected volume and saw dollar growth of 202%.

Even though their traffic may be up, many food bloggers have still had their operations disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I had big plans for this year, which have unfortunately been thwarted because of COVID-19, but that’s okay,” Maehashi said. “I’ve shelved by projects and decided to use this stuck-at-home time to concentrate on another project – raising funds to provide meals for our health care workers.” You can find out more about this initiative here.