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3.3 Results

3.4.2 Consumers Response

From the consumer survey, there were more of male respondents in all the four cities. This supports the report of Gossard and York (2003) that gender has a particularly strong influence on meat consumption and there was no physiological reason, other than the average differences in weight that men would require more meat than women. This also corresponds with a survey of dietary habits in Denmark which showed that men consume more meat and meat products than women; on average of 141 g/day/man compared with 89 g/day/woman (excluding poultry) (Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research, 2005). Also, Linseisen et al. (2002), as cited by Williamson et al. (2005), reported that men consumed more of both red meat and processed meat than women.

The age of most of the respondents fell between 26 – 40 years and they were mostly civil servants.

The high level of civil servant may be explained by the fact that the cities studied have long history of being seat of governments. However, the low (< 15%) civil servants who consumed meat products in Kaduna might be due to the presence of few industries other than civil service which engaged the people.

Majority of the respondents in Abuja, Ibadan and Lagos had higher level of education which provides work force for the government, hence high percentage of civil servants, unlike in Kaduna where the percentage of respondents with tertiary education is below average. Therefore, in Kaduna most of the respondents might provide un-skilled manpower for the few industries. This is also reflected in the monthly earning because majority of the respondents in the cities having high percentage of respondents with tertiary education level earned above N40,000 per month, except in Ibadan where their income was between N20,000 - N40,000. These monthly earnings do not compare with earning of respondents in Kaduna that was below N11, 000. The higher the income, the higher the expendable money and the more meat product that will be consumed.

Most of the respondents in all the four cities purchased beef compared to other type of meat like chevon and poultry. The low purchase of chevon and poultry may be explained by tradeoff phenomenon. Gossard and York (2003) reported that tradeoffs are made among different types of meat, that is, increasing the consumption of one type of meat may reduce the consumption of another

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type. Therefore, it can be deduced from the result of the survey that the high purchase of beef by the consumers may reduce the purchase of other meats. Furthermore, the result of this survey agrees with the report of de Almeida et al. (2006) on weekly consumption pattern of meat that beef accounted for 58%; chicken 30%; fish 6%; pork 5%; and mutton 1%. The report indicated that beef was highly consumed by the populace compared to other meat types.

Majority of the consumers in Abuja, Ibadan and Kaduna employed freezing as a method of preserving their meat while consumers in Lagos claimed that they preferred to roast their meat as a method of preservation. It might be assumed that consumers in Lagos city are fond of varieties which might make them prefer roasting as a mean of preservation than freezing. Consumers in Abuja are also fond of roasting their meats as a method of preservation, although the percentage is small compared to Lagos but higher compared to either Ibadan or Kaduna cities. This might be probably due to the fact that consumers in these two cities are engaged in white collar jobs which make them to be extremely busy and out of their homes for long hours during the day and it is assumed that roasting their meat will lessen the stress of preparing the meat whenever they want to consume it.

From the survey, it was revealed that most consumers in Kaduna city also employed drying as a method of preservation, probably because of the high ambient temperature (about 36-38oC) and high wind speed in the Northern Guinea savanna ecological zone that Kaduna is located.

The higher percentage of respondents purchasing processed meat in Abuja and Lagos could be attributed to the fact that in these cities most of the respondents earn above N40,000 per month, indicating that there will be capital for the purchase of luxuries and this agrees with the report of (Bourdieu, 1984) that variation in consumption patterns may be expected among individuals in different social categories and that differences in food consumption patterns may distinguish one social group from another. The high percentage of consumers obtained in Kaduna could be due to high prevalence of meat animals in the environment, which is one of the characteristics of the northern cities, being in the savanna ecological zone with animal grazing as an outstanding land use.

These meats could be processed into different kinds of meat products, either to preserve and/or to add values. The processing and high prevalence of meat animals may account for the presence of varieties of meat products in Kaduna. According to Jimnez-Colmenero et al. (2001) consumption of meat and meat products is affected by various factors such as product characteristics, the consumer (in terms of economic status) and environmental related factors. This result also agrees with the report from the study carried out by Gossard and York (2003) that differences in meat consumption could simply be

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explained by the availability and price of meat in different locations, or they could reflect regional cultural differences.

Most consumers in Abuja, Ibadan and Kaduna preferred to purchase Suya than any other meat product, while consumers in Lagos preferred the purchase of Kilishi. The preference for Kilishi over suya by Lagos respondents may be explained by the pleasure they derive in varieties, suya being a common meat product that is available in most places within the country. Considering the purchase of other meat products, Lagos residents are the least purchaser of roasted chicken. This may be attributed to the familiarity with taste of roasted meat because roasting is a method most of the respondents engaged in when preserving their meat at home.

Respondents in Abuja and Kaduna claimed that they are very familiar with meat floss compared to Ibadan and Lagos. The high percentage of respondents observed in Abuja and Kaduna could be attributed to the fact that this product is popular in the Northern cities (Ogunsola and Omojola, 2008), and these two cities are located in the Northern part of the countries. This pattern is also noticed in the respondents’ consumption pattern of meat floss, with respondents in Lagos city having the lowest consumption rate. Familiarity and availability of product in the environment might best explain the high consumption rate of meat floss by Abuja and Kaduna respondents. Although the frequency in the consumption pattern of meat floss is low in all the cities because the survey results was below 40% but generally, respondents in Abuja and Kaduna still consumed the product more frequently than respondent in Lagos.

The respondents in the cities located in Southern Nigeria (Ibadan and Lagos) claimed that they first came in contact with meat floss at a party (with the highest percentage from Lagos), unlike respondents in Kaduna who claimed that the product is readily available at market places, shops and motor parks.

To all the consumers, the price of meat floss is fair and affordable. The affordability may be due to the fact that Kaduna respondents see meat floss as any other meat products, while that of Lagos can be attributed to the fact that the inhabitants are in affluence and can pay more for any product they desire. Jimnez-Colmenero et al. (2001) reported that one of the factors that influence the purchase of meat products is the economic status of the consumers. The fairness of the price of meat floss to Abuja respondents may be attributed to the high income claimed by most respondents and the ready availability of the product on request.

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Majority of consumer respondents in all the four cities have little concern about the type of meat or spices being used in the production of meat floss, but greatly concerned about the packaging and hygiene of the product. The low standard of hygiene perceived or the great concern the consumers have towards the packaging method or hygiene condition of the product could probably be as a result of the low level of education of the producers. Most of the producers have secondary school certificates as reflected in the survey carried out. According to Skandamis and Nychas (2002), packaging is an indispensable element in the food processing industry as it ensures that better quality products reaches the consumers and makes the foods easy to be handled and stored by retailers and consumers.

The survey of consumers also revealed that meat floss is readily available in Abuja and Kaduna. This may be explained by availability of meat animals and familiarity of northern savanna dwellers with the various meat products, the two cities being located in northern axis of the country. This agrees with the report of Gossard and York (2003) that availability of a product will determine the consumption level of such product.

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Chapter Four

4.0 Qualitative evaluation of meat floss prepared from different meat types 4.1 Introduction

Product development and innovation are necessary to offset the growth in the availability of food products competing for disposable income and the red meat industry is in a mature stage, where product development and innovation is necessary to bring about significant growth (Resurrecion, 2003).

Meat is a complex food with a highly structured nutritional composition. It becomes edible and more digestible when it is subjected to cooking. However, heat treatment can lead to undesirable modifications, such as the loss of the nutritional value due to lipid oxidation, and changes in the protein fraction (Rodriguez-Estrada et al., 1997) and as reported by Huda et al.

(2010) that different types of meat used for sausage raw material may yield different quality characteristics in the sausages. Furthermore, during the past decade, restructured meat products have been produced from specific part of meats such as breast and thigh (Huda et al., 2011) Breast part is usually used in meat product formulation due to its physical superiority characteristics such as its uniformity, soft texture, and lighter color but thigh meat with it higher fat content will give stronger flavor when it is cooked, and finally attracts the consumer preferences (Huda et al., 2011) and use of thigh meat in meat product formulation will minimize the production cost (Petracci et al., 2008) hence, there is need for studies on the nutrition and qualities of different meat products from different meat types (Ikhlas et al., 2011).

Meat floss (Danbunama) is an intermediate moisture meat product that is prepared essentially from beef. The ability of the product to keep for several days at room temperature is fast making the product a house name. However, with increasing awareness and consumption of meat floss, coupled with the high price of the product as a result of the high price of beef especially the choice part (the thigh muscle), it therefore, becomes necessary to produce meat floss from other meat types. This study was therefore designed to evaluate the nutritive and eating qualities of meat floss and also assess the keeping quality of the products when prepared from different meat types.

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