People in the UK have already been panic buying, mostly pasta and toilet roll AFAICT
I believe that the world is mocking a phantom.
That said, toilet paper in general has been driven by media hype 100%. I think I remember some early stories where idiots purchased tonnes of it and emptied the shelves. I think the reason for toilet paper being purchased so much is because of it being randomly reported on in the beginning and that it's so cheap. A person on a modest income could easily purchase an entire shelf of toilet roll, whereas you're unlikely to see such things with higher cost items that have to be consumed within a certain time.
https://math.mit.edu/projects/traffic
It’s basically a normal occurrence in dense traffic.
I think you're right for the most part, but in Australia there have been videos/pictures of people overloading shopping carts with enough toilet paper to last a family for years. These people are out there but it's hard to tell if they're in significant numbers or just a few idiots. I think we needed a little bit of panic a lot sooner to smooth over these bumps, but most people did not heed the advanced warning that China gave us.
Where as with other things, you could grab a months supply of cans and pasta and there will still be so much left, as well as the fact that not everyone is grabbing the same kinds of foods so the hit is spread over pasta, rice, flour and a huge range of canned food.
Sensible choice all things considered. I think instant noodles are also a pretty good bet, I personally make a noodle soup with vegetables to bring up the nutrition a bit. I would also add frozen vegetables to the list as it keeps for ages and balances out most meals, whilst still being quite good for you.
I like pasta too, but don't eat as much as I used to. Rice is so versatile!
I like rice, but am concerned by the number of people who don't wash it (arsenic) [1]. Then you have the issue of reheating/leaving to cool [2].
With the amount of idiocy going around it seems like a massive risk. Pasta is very difficult to mess up, worst case you're just going to get some crunchy or over-boiled pasta.
[1] https://www.recapo.com/the-doctors/the-doctors-diet/the-doct...
[2] https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can...
It's the kind of article/site like one you'd see taking a graph of the effects 2011 Japanese quake on currents across the world, and claiming it to be a graph of how radiation has reached California...
> Now, some ways of cooking rice reduce arsenic levels more than others. We carried out some tests with Prof Meharg and found the best technique is to soak the rice overnight before cooking it in a 5:1 water-to-rice ratio.
> That cuts arsenic levels by 80%, compared to the common approach of using two parts water to one part rice and letting all the water soak in. Using lots of water - the 5:1 ratio - without pre-soaking also reduced arsenic levels, but not by as much as the pre-soaking levels.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/health-38910848 [2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2F1MDzyW55pg97Tdpp...
Even if you don't use it now because food supply chains don't end up majorly affected, this kind of stuff is handy to have around in case of an a more immediate emergency.