Chicken Meat Consumption Habits of University Students: Case of Siirt University, Turkey

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to determine the chicken meat consumption habits of students studying at Siirt University and the factors affecting these habits. The study material consists of data obtained by face to face survey method with a total of 217 associate and undergraduate students studying at Siirt University. The survey application was conducted in April-May 2019. When the preferred parts of chicken meat of the students were examined, the breast meat was the most preferred part with 34.46%, while the giblets part was the least preferred part with 1.87%. Chicken doner took first place with 64.4% in processed chicken meat preferences. The most important point when purchasing chicken meat was the expiration date with 62.92%. The most preferred places to buy chicken meat were supermarkets with 58.80%, while the least preferred places were grocery stores and neighborhood markets with 3.75%. It was determined that 68.5% of the university students participating in the survey knew the nutritional value of chicken meat, while 31.5% did not know its nutritive value. However, contrary to these results, 91.0% of the students think that hormones are used in chickens and 82.4% of them think that antibiotics are used as a growth promoter in chickens. When the results of the factors that cause changes in chicken meat consumption are examined according to gender and some knowledge levels; It was concluded that parameters such as the use of antibiotics in animals, TV-radio and newspaper news, the risk of animal diseases, low-fat rate, and the effect of the media in the poultry sector, cause significant (p <0.01) differences between the genders in chicken meat consumption. In all of these values, the values of women were found to be higher than men. As a result, when the values were calculated on the basis of year for students who participated in the survey, in terms of chicken consumption values, it was observed that the values were above the average of Turkey. Although this result is pleasing, the fact that most of the students reported that hormones were used in chickens and that antibiotics were used as growth stimulants, shows that they do not have complete information about the nutritional value of the chicken. There is a need for new studies that will emphasize the importance of the issue in both the visual media and the print media, which will raise the awareness of the society on these issues.

Keywords

• chicken meat
• consumption habits
• student
• nonparametric tests
• siirt