Hábitos de consumo de mel entre servidores e discentes do Instituto Federal do Triângulo Mineiro – Campus Uberaba

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.531112505035

• Palavras-chave: mel; perfil do consumidor; apicultura.

• Keywords: honey; consumer profile; beekeeping.

• Abstract: Honey is a food produced by honeybees, known worldwide for its nutritional quality, flavor and aroma, in addition to its health benefits, used by civilizations over the centuries, both as food and in associations such as herbal medicines, being considered the most common sweetener. ancient humanity. Brazil is a major producer due to its vast flora, territorial extension and climate variation and ranks sixth in terms of exports. However, honey consumption by Brazilians is considered one of the lowest in the world, around 60 grams/inhabitant/year compared to the world average of 240 grams/inhabitant/year. Therefore, analyzing consumer preferences and behaviors helps to define more effective marketing strategies, which optimize efforts and make it possible to add value to products. This quantitative and descriptive study's main objective was to characterize the profile of honey consumers at the Instituto Federal do Triangulo Mineiro - Campus Uberaba. To this end, an online questionnaire was created using the Google Forms platform, containing seventeen objective questions that portrayed socioeconomic and demographic aspects, characteristics of honey consumption, places and purchasing criteria and ways of using honey. This instrument was made available on social media from April to September 2023. 436 responses were obtained, and the data was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis based on frequency distribution. Of the total number of respondents, 59.7% are female, 36.9% are aged between 14 and 17 years old, 31.6% have a family income above six thousand reais, 40.8% are attending high school and 96 .3% live in urban areas. Regarding honey consumption, it was found that almost 100% knew about honey and only 13.9% did not consume it. However, 60.4% consume it rarely and only 9% do it daily and the biggest motivations were for the taste and for being healthy, therefore the main forms of consumption were as food and medicine. The most frequent place of purchase was the supermarket and origin were identified as the most important criterion in the purchasing decision followed by the physical characteristics of the honey such as flavor, color and density. The most common container is still glass and most claim to have labels on the packaging. Therefore, it was found that honey consumption is still considered low, representing what is expected at a national level. Actions on the quality, benefits, nutritional and functional value of honey are necessary, which can be done through marketing strategies to encourage the consumption of honey, encourage purchases directly from small producers and, consequently, increase commercialization and frequency of consumption of this food.