Survey Into the Seafood Consumption Preferences and Patterns in the Portuguese Population: Education, Age, and Health Variability

ABSTRACT

A survey into the seafood consumption preferences and patterns in the Portuguese population was carried out. Consumers were asked to state their preferences toward different kinds of fish products, to indicate their consumption frequencies of a total of 23 products, to mention the average meal portion, and to inform about the usual culinary treatments applied to the raw products. It was observed that the sensory characteristics of each product and cultural habits seem to influence serving size. For horse mackerel and canned sardines, an inverse correlation between education level and consumption frequency was found. Moreover, the consumption frequency of soaked cod, the main salted and dried fish in the Portuguese market, decreased with higher education. Older consumers were much fonder of wild fish and much more unwilling to consume farmed fish than the younger ones. It was also found that obese people deviate from other weight groups in that their preferences and consumption quantities are displaced to foods other than seafood.

KEYWORDS:

• Seafood
• consumption survey
• consumer preferences
• consumption frequencies
• education level
• age
• health

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Isabel Castanheira from the National Health Institute Dr. Ricardo Jorge as well as Dr. Narcisa Bandarra, Dr. Cláudia Afonso, Eng. Irineu Batista, and Dr. Maria Fernanda Martins from the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere for their help in the elaboration and dissemination of the survey.

Funding

This work was supported by the project GOODFISH, Ref. PTDC/SAU-ESA/103825/2008 funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the project GOODFISH, Ref. PTDC/SAU-ESA/103825/2008 funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).