Between Tradition and Taste: Fish Consumption Habits in a Small Portuguese Archipelago

ABSTRACT

A survey of fish and seafood consumption habits was carried out in Madeira archipelago, in the Eastern Atlantic. A total of 465 valid questionnaires were obtained from all municipalities of Madeira and Porto Santo islands. Cod, an imported product, but a traditional Portuguese staple food, was the most frequently consumed species, surpassing locally caught species such as tunas and scabbardfish. In a GLM analysis, taste emerged as the most important factor conditioning fish consumption frequency, followed by fishing activity. The survey uncovered high participation in subsistence fishing and informal fish acquisition outside the commercial circuit.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumption
• fish
• Madeira
• Portugal
• seafood

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the https://doi.org/10.1080/10498850.2020.1734892.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to everyone who collaborated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

M. Hermida was financially supported by a post-doctoral grant from ARDITI (Regional Agency for Development of Research, Technology and Innovation of Madeira), Project [M1420-09-5369-FSE-000001]. S. Costa was financially supported by the Oceanic Observatory of Madeira Project [M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000001-Observatório Oceânico da Madeira-OOM]. This study had the support of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), through the strategic project [UID/MAR/04292/2019] granted to MARE.