Consumers’ Preference and Perception of the different Types of Meat among Staff and Students of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria

In a bid to study consumers preference and perception of the different types of meat among staff and students of the University of Ibadan, a well structured questionnaire was administered to 370 randomly sampled respondents staff and students of the University. The respondents belong to different categories within the university: Non Academic Staff Union 17 (4.6%); Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities 19 (5.1%); Academic Staff Union of Universities 24 (6.5%); National Association of Academic Technologists 10 (2.7%); Undergraduates 120 (32.4%) and Postgraduates 180 (48.6%). All respondents were meat consumers as 204 (55.1%) consumed beef the most, 86 (23.2%) chicken, 59 (15.9%) turkey while 16 (4.3%) and 5 (1.4%) ate chevon and pork respectively. Most respondents preferred chicken (27.3%), turkey (18.6%) and beef (18.4%) to other types of meat. Availability (47.3%), price (15.9%) and income (11.1%) among others were the factors that influenced their choice of meat types. Consumers preferred lean meat to meats with moderate fat and meat from old animals to young or middle aged animals. Beef was most affordable, easiest to cook, most accessible; chicken the tastiest and most palatable while bush meat was believed to be most nutritious. Chisquare result however revealed there were significant differences in the consumption pattern (X2 = 343.1) and preference of meat (X2 = 156.7) by the respondents.