Browsing by Subject "sesonkiruoka"

Consumers are told to eat seasonally to reduce the environmental impacts of food. Finnish food culture has a long tradition of eating seasonally. Although, it seems that consumers perceptions of the seasons of food products have disappeared due to the wide variation of groceries and changes in lifestyle. The aim of this study is to find out the perceptions of seasonal food of one consumer group, university students. The more detailed aims are to find out university students' perceptions of seasonal food, how do students see seasonal eating as a part of environmentally friendly choices and do students consider seasons of the food products when choosing food. The data for the study were collected from students studying at University of Helsinki with a web-based questionnaire in December 2014. There were all together 401 respondents, and they came from all faculties. 339 of the respondents were women and 62 of them were men. The age varied from 19 years old to 59 years old and the average age was 27. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered with the questionnaire. The quantitative data were analyzed statistically using cross tabulation and Khii square test, independent groups t-test, one way analysis of variance and Tukey's test, and Spearman's correlation. The qualitative data from open questions were categorized and the frequencies of categories were counted. Students were familiar with the term seasonal food. The most frequently named seasonal foods were vegetables, berries and fruits. Meanings related to food availability, production and cultural traditions were most common for the seasonal food concept. Most of the respondents were considering seasons of the food products when choosing food. Students seemed to recognize the role of eating seasonally in reducing the environmental impacts associated with food. Cheaper price, better taste and quality and the variety they brought to the diet were most mentioned reasons to eat seasonally. Students who did not eat seasonally mentioned the lack of information as the biggest reasons not to do so. There should be a clear definition of seasonal food in order to guide consumers to eat seasonally. Consumers' perceptions could be useful when building these definitions. More information about seasonal foods should be available and seasonality should be more clearly seen in supermarkets. Even though eating seasonally would not have huge impact on reducing the environmental impacts of food production and consumption, it could be the first and quite easy step towards more sustainable eating. It could also provide a way to get people to pay more attention towards food they are eating.