Determination of Fish Consumption in Çanakkale

Fish plays a key role in human consumption in terms of protein, mineral, and essential fatty acid contents. Unfortunately, despite its importance for the human health, there is lack interest on the fish consumption in Turkey. In this context, this paper aimed to determine the fish consumption habits in Çanakkale. It is estimated that fish consumption could be higher in the locations along the coasts of marine and inland waters. Therefore, consumers living in all districts of the city were surveyed to test this hypothesis. The questionnaire was carried out to provide an insight into the fish consumption habits of randomly selected 1056 consumers in Çanakkale. Socio-economic and demographic structures such as age, gender, educational status, profession, income level of the consumers were determined. Responses of the consumers were arranged and analysed by using SPSS and MS-Excel software. Moreover, fish consumption amount, consumption frequency, preferred fish species, most consumed fish species were also determined. The results give an excellent snapshot of fish consumption habits in Çanakkale. Both the most consumed and the most favourite fish species are identified as Sarda sarda. Fish consumption frequency was described as 33.3% (352 individuals) for consuming fish one a week followed by bimonthly frequency (21.9%, 231 individuals) and monthly frequency (21.5%, 227 individuals). 2.3% (24 individuals) of the participants noted that they never consume fish. Moreover, the majority of consumers specified that they consume fish 1-2 kg (39.0%, 312 individuals) and 27.3% (288 individuals) consume fish 0.5-1 kg. Socio-economic and demographic characteristics of consumers are affecting the fish consumption habits. In the present study, season, income level, and freshness of fish are found to be driving force for fish consumption in Çanakkale. Therefore, fish farmers and sellers are recommended to remain the freshness of fish and to follow the appropriate fishing season for providing fish to consumers.