A research on determination of the consumption of animal products and consumer preferences: The case in Afyon Kocatepe University staff

The aims of this study is to identify the consumption of animal products and consumer preferences among academic or non-academic staff at Afyon Kocatepe University. Data were collected by face-to-face interview technique. Stratified sampling methods were used in order to determine the participants employed in this study, and 348 participants were interviewed. The study was carried out between June 2012 and February 2013. Chi-square (?2) test was used to analyze the relationship among animal products the levels of consumption-income, total food expenditure-income, and the share of animal products out of total food expenditure-income level. In this study, the average number of the individuals in a family were 3.36 ± 1.26, the average number of working individuals in the 1.64 ± 0.57, the average income in the family 3000 ± 1009.7 Turkish Liras, and the average food expenditure were 715 ± 342.7 Turkish Liras. It was found that the average share of animal products as a monthly food expenditure was 22.4%. The annual consumption of drinking milk per capita was 29 ± 12.45 kg whereas the annual consumption of milk products per capita 5.7 ± 2.33 kg cheese, 10.1 ± 3.35 kg yoghurt, 5.4 ± 3.07 kg ayran, 1.75 ± 0.83 kg natural butter and 1.1 ± 0.45 kg butterfat. The annual consumption of meat products per capita was predicted as 18.84 ± 6.28 kg for meat, 15.12 ± 4.32 kg for chicken meat and 9.42 ± 3.73 kg for fish meat. A significant consumption could not be found for other meat products except for sausage. The annual consumption of eggs and honey per capita were 129 ± 45.24 piece and 1.7 ± 0.94 kg respectively. According to chi-square (?2) results, the increase in the income of individuals are significantly related with food consumption (p<0,001), the share of animal products out of total food expenditure (p<0,05), drinking milk consumption (p<0,05), yoghurt consumption (p<0,05), meat products consumption (p<0,05), fish meat consumption (p<0,01), egg consumption (p<0,001) and honey consumption (p<0,05). The present results indicate that the animal products consumption and consumer preferences among the university staff who have a higher status in the society in terms of their higher educational level and income level reveals significant differences.