Nutrition Benefits and Consumer Habits of Foods Made from Goat-Milk

Abstract

Healthy nutrition and health protection of the Hungarian population begins with the production of proper foods. Among these one of the most important is the milk, of which consumption has decreased considerably after the top-year of 1987. Milk received several critics in the last few years despite the fact that thousand millions of people had grown up and had become healthy adults by consuming it. Study focuses on a since long forgotten kind of milk products having a boom nowadays: goat-milk and its products. Goat serves as a basic food-source in the Balkans and in countries east of Hungary, while in Western Europe products made from goat-milk are luxury consumer goods. These products are only available for higher social strata. In this research consumer opinions about goat-milk products and the knowledge of their nutrition benefits were examined by focus group surveys, product tasting survey and a country-wide questionnaire research. 80% of the participants in the tasting event had already consumed goat-milk products while in the country-wide survey this proportion is only 53%. This relatively high proportion can be explained by that the respondents take the eventual and occasional probing of the products as consumption, whereas consumption in our point of view means regular intake. People primarily consume different kinds of goat cheese, and some milk, while the other goat milk products are practically not consumed. Non-consumers explained their rejection with the following reasons: special taste, high price and weak availability. According to the results of the country-wide survey almost the one fifth of the consumers cannot be persuaded of the goat-milk product’s consumption because these people are basically averse to these products. On the other hand, the others could be induced to consume these products if they got to know the products’ taste, met more advertisements and if the products became cheaper and more widely available. Nevertheless, during the tasting event each respondent found at least one kind of the offered products which were suitable for their taste and 97% of them said that they would decide to buy such products. When analyzing purchasing attitudes it came to light that 67.6% of the participants in the tasting and 35.5% of the questionnaire survey respondents already bought some kind of goatmilk products. Mostly cheese, then milk, milk curds and finally other milk products were bought. Goods are mainly purchased in hyper- and supermarkets while many people buy these products on the local market or directly from the producer. Non-customer explained their rejection with the followings: they have never met with these goods because they are unavailable or a lot of people are loath to do tasting because of its special taste and the high prices. The factors influencing purchase were researched at the country-wide inquiry. People had to mark on a 1 to 5 scale how the listed factors influence their decision in case of buying common foods or purchasing goat-milk products. According to this consumers’ decision is mainly determined by taste, by quality and by price. Besides taste and quality, the main motive for purchasing goat-milk products is their healthy nature, people even preferred the appearance and the aesthetic factor to the price factor. Health was the only factor which had higher value at the goat-milk products than in the case of other foods. The country-wide survey also studied the goat-milk product’s yearly consumption frequency among the Hungarian population. This value was analyzed using a 6-range interval scale. On the basis of results it can be said that Hungarian populations’ goat-milk consumption frequency is not only extremely low but practically it does not really exist. When summarizing the results it can be said that frequency of goat-milk consumption does not exceed approximately 33 occasions per year, hence Hungarian consumers consumed some goat-milk products once in a 11 days period. According to the purchasing opinions, the consumption will increase if the product prices decrease or products can be accessed more easily. The answers contained general benefits like healthiness. There were participants who pointed out the high mineral substance-, calcium- and fat content, and the fact that people being sensitive to cow milk can also consume these products. The country-wide questionnaire did not show deeper knowledge, either. People think that goat-milk can be easily digested, contains a lot of vitamins and more nutritive than the cow milk. Ambivalent results were obtained from the question focusing on the fat content of the goat milk, respondents judged its value both high and low. The knowledge level of the consumers is very limited, therefore interventions of the agricultural administration, the research and educational institutions, the Agricultural Marketing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the interest representation bodies are absolutely needed to deliver relevant knowledge and information to people. A community educational campaign could lead to an upswing in the market. Since results definitely show that consumers possess limited knowledge on the nutritional advantages of goat milk the relevant domestic and foreign results on the indicated topic were collected and shortly analyzed throughout the study.