Consumer Attitude on Fresh and Processed Meat Quality; A Case Study from Badulla District
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Worldwide, food safety crisis debates have come forward as an important aspect especially in
meat industry. Hence, producers, distributors, marketing staff and policy makers should have
higher consideration towards meat quality. Thus, this study was conducted with an aim of
identifying the factors influenced on consumer attitude towards meat quality with special
reference to Badulla district. Two hundred consumers were randomly selected and interviewed
using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. The primary data were analyzed using the Microsoft
Office Excel (2007) and Minitab14 software. The Regression model was developed to
determine the socio-demographic factors that influence for consumer attitude toward meat
quality as, Consumer attitude on meat quality (AI) = f (Age + Religion + Income + Education +
Nutritional purpose + Taste purpose + Gender+ Government occupation + Private occupation +
Market type). All respondents consumed at least one kind of meat product and 1% of the
respondents did not consume any type of meat. Ninety percent of the respondents had
established their meat consumption pattern at their child age. The religious believes (55%),
economic concerns (16%) and antipathy for killing animals (17%) were the most popular
reasons for not being meat consumers. The “meat colour” (80%) was the most concerning factor
at the time of purchasing and 20.5% of respondents are concerned of “quality standards” as first.
The cleanliness and freshness (30%), tenderness (2.5%), juiciness (1.5%) and marbling (1.2%)
were other most concerned quality parameter at the time of purchasing. The income, education
level, gender and religion have significantly affected the consumer attitude towards meat
quality. There were no significant correlation between the attitude index and age, purpose of
meat consumption, occupation and market type. The results showed a positive coefficient of the
gender and income level with attitude index.
Description
Keywords
Animal Sciences, Food Science, Meat Production, Meat, Meat Consumption