Consumers behavior of lamb meat in the north Paraná state region

Abstract

For many years the marketing of sheep meat was disorganized, with slaughter of low quality animals. This has created an image unfavorable to the product. As this scenario changes, sheep meat is more prominent, especially lamb meat that serves market niches in large urban centers. The objective of this work was to measure the consumption and acceptability of sheep meat in the region of Londrina - PR, according to the gender, age, level of schooling and family income of the persons interviewed, as well as to evaluate the sensorial parameters of sheep meat according to consumers without the information of the animal species, aiming to indicate guiding actions for the productive chain of sheep. A total of 951 inhabitants were interviewed and a consumer study was conducted with 134 inhabitants, both from Londrina and region, during the Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition of Londrina, in the year 2014. The main reasons for not consuming the meat is the lack of custom 44.1% followed by the fact of not liking 39.8%. The reason they do not like meat is the strong smell of the animal 44.8% followed by the sweet taste 20.2%. Regarding the acceptability of the sample, 47.01% of the consumers marked the meat as much as they liked, followed by 26.87% that tasted extremely, only 2.25% of consumers marked the meat as unpleasant. It is observed that the great barrier to increase the consumption of the sheep meat is the lack of custom and bad experiences that lead to the non consumption.