Consumo de alimentos integrais e light em um município no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The present work suggests an increase in the integral food consumption and light, due to the increase of availability of these products in the Market and the little knowledge of the consumers about them. The study aimed to discover the consumption habits of these foods, buying motivations and sources of information. For this work a questionnaire was applied to the residents of the municipality of Itaqui-RS, with a sample of 200 people in places of great circulation as local trades an in households. It was generally found that more than 60% of the participants in the study said they know what are whole foods and light, that 53% of individuals consume whole foods and only 15% consume light foods. It was verified that 85% of the people consume these foods for health, being the greater prevalence for the nonconsumption of these foods the flavor of the same ones with 43%, followed by the lack of habit with 33%, nevertheless a preponderant factor the lack of consumption may be related to the price of these products, since 65% of people said they did not consider the prices of these foods affordable. The most cited sources of information were television with 34%, internet sites with 23% and nutritionist with 21%. From this, it was found that 80% of participants in the study trust the information they receive and 20% do not trust information. It was concluded that the participants of the municipality of Itaqui-RS are interested in the consumption of whole foods and light and that most of them have a good idea of what these foods are, and that they consume them with relative frequency, mainly for reasons of health, however, it is understood that the information that these participants have are much lower than the reality of these foods, and interesting educational initiatives and incentive of the good and the awareness of what they ingest.