Percepção do mercado de carnes não tradicionais dos estudantes dos cursos de graduação de ciências agrárias da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia.

Abstract

Considering the importance of issues involving food production for Brazil and the world, and the share of participation that professionals involved in these processes have in relation to innovation and productivity efficiency, the aim of this paper was to identify the level knowledge of the students of Agronomy, Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the Federal University of Uberlândia and their perception regarding the production of food from animal species considered unconventional in the diet of Brazilians. To this end, a survey was conducted that collected data from 150 students from the above-mentioned courses. An online questionnaire was used to collect this data, which was passed to the students by the coordinators of the respective courses. Questionnaires were included in the questionnaire about social and educational factors, the cultural way of understanding animal production and consumption, as well as specific questions about the consumption of food of animal origin, whether coming from the species considered traditional or those considered unconventional for the animals. Participating students, the questionnaire also presented questions that associated animal production and its impacts on the environment. It was found from the survey that the vast majority of respondents (83,20%) are omnivores regarding the food profile, and have high consumption of meat throughout the week, only 44,7% of respondents had the opportunity to consume meat from unconventional animals. Regarding environmental issues involving animal production 45% of participants said they had a high level of knowledge, where it was found that 77,9% of respondents considered that conventional livestock have medium / high level of impact on native environments. Regarding the conventional animal production chain, 51,33% of respondents said they had a high level of knowledge. When asked about the unconventional animal production chain, this number dropped to 4,7%. The survey results showed that students' knowledge on issues involving unconventional animal production is low, as well as their interest in working with breeding species that fit this situation, the vast majority of students are not in contact with them. subjects related to these species during their academic formation.