Safety aspect was a concern for pork from Indonesia and China, where China was given a greater concern for this aspect (Table 3.4). Consumers were generally with the safety of pork from Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Singapore consumers, as represented by the current respondents, considered flavour and price as the least desirable characteristics for pork from the western countries (Table 3.4).
The specific flavour and taste sensory attributes associated with undesirable aspects of pork flavour shown in Table 3.5 were scored on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 was most relevant and 5 was the least relevant. Mutton flavour was considered as the most relevant attribute for pork from Australia (1.32), Canada (1.30) and New Zealand (1.26).
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Discriminant analysis was carried out to investigate the association between unfavourable-attribute scores and countries of origin of pork. The first and second functions accounted for 95.9% of the variance. Function 1 accounted for 85.8% of the variation and related mainly to mutton-like flavour, while function 2 accounted for 10.1% of the variation and reflected on acidic and metallic flavour. Two distinct groups can be seen in Figure 3.1, the Asian (Indonesia and China) group, and the Western (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil and USA) group. Function 1 clearly separated the treatments into 2 clusters- the Asian group as one cluster and the Western group as another cluster, based on the high degree of relevance of mutton flavour in pork from the Western group. This observation is also consistent with results in Table 3.3 showing that pork from Western countries scored lower as “tasty pork” compared to that from Asian countries. In contrast to the Asian pork, flavour from the Western cluster was considered as less desirable (Table 3.4).
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Table 3.4
Frequency scores for reasons why Singapore consumers dislike pork from various countries of origin1 (Chinese population only). Reason for not liking pork Country-of-origin (% that responded for each feature) 1
Australia Canada China Indonesia New
Zealand Others (Brazil, USA) Flavour 14.6 52.3 12.4 20.9 70.2 45.5 Price 32.8 79.2 5.8 35.2 77.9 50.9 Safety reasons 6.7 10.8 90.7 32.1 6.3 35.3 Texture 10.5 25.6 1.5 10.6 27.9 29.6 Other reasons 0.94 1.7 3.8 2.9 1.2 1.1 1
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Table 3.5
Least squares means for degree of relevance of undesirable flavour terms associated with pork from different countries of origin1 (Chinese population only).
Reason Country
Australia Canada China Indonesia New
Zealand
Others (Brazil, USA)
No.of respondents 38 40 20 14 27 9
Presence of:
Acidic taste 4.21c 3.95c 2.70b 1.36a 5.04d 4.91d
Aftertaste 2.11a 1.63a 4.00b 4.64b 1.94a 2.18a
Bitter taste 4.24ab 4.55b 4.30ab 4.64b 4.67b 3.82a
Metallic flavour 4.76d 4.48d 1.25a 1.93b 3.67c 3.27c
Milky flavour 1.58a 1.85a 2.75b 4.29c 1.67a 1.18a
Mutton-liked flavour 1.32a 1.30a 4.45c 4.50c 1.26a 3.36b
Stale flavour 2.34b 2.70b 4.90d 4.30c 1.52a 2.64b
1All attributes were scored on a scale where 1 = very relevant and 5 = not relevant
2
56 10 8 6 4 2 0 -2 -4 Function 1 (85.8%) 5.0 2.5 0.0 -2.5 Funct ion 2 (10.1%)
Others (Brazil, USA) New Zealand Indonesia China Canada Australia Fig. 3.1
A plot of seven countries relative to the first two discriminant functions made up of relevance scores for the seven undesirable flavour attributes (Table 3.5) as assessed by Singapore consumers. Based on Wilks’ Lambda test, significance values of function 1 and function 2 were less than 0.001.
The first and second functions accounted for 95.9% of the variance. Function 1 accounted for 85.8% of the variation and related mainly to mutton-like flavour, while function 2 accounted for 10.1% of the variation and related mainly on acidic and metallic flavour.
Metallic flavour Mutton flavour M eta llic fl avour A cid ic fl avour
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3.4 Discussion
In Singapore, more than 40%, of the consumers in this study lived in households of 5 or more people. Few (<10%) consumers were living with grandparents. More than half of Singapore and Korean households had parents living with them. Thus the decision of purchasing pork is not just a personal issue as they need to buy and even to cook for their family members too. They may even have to consider the preferences of their family members towards the country of origin of the pork during purchasing. In Singapore, more than 60% of the consumers purchase pork at the supermarkets which offer a wide variety of pork and its parts from different countries. Thus availability of pork will not be an issue unless Singapore consumers are looking for pork from Canada and New Zealand which are mainly available from meat specialty shops or organic food stores.
Most Singaporeans consume pork at least once a week. Consumers from Asian countries like Korea (64%) and Japan (79%) also tend to eat pork at least once a week (Table 3.6), but this is not the case in Australia (19%), Mexico (34%) and New Zealand (34%). Pork is rarely eaten every day, except in China (50%). Boiling was often used in Singapore (69%). Stewing was the second most popular among consumers in Singapore. This goes in parallel with Asian countries like China. The most popular forms were grilling, frying and roasting for the western countries. Roasting was rare in China (1%), Korea (4%) and Mexico (9%).
The Singapore study also showed that 80% of the consumers like to consume pork (Table 3.6). This was similar to the respondents from China, Japan, Korea, Ireland, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand in the study of Ngapo et al. (2007) (Table 3.6). This indicates that pork is a popular meat for consumers throughout western and Asian countries. According to the metric tons of pork was consumed worldwide in 2006. Increasing urbanisation and disposable income has led to a rapid rise in pork consumption in China, where 2006 consumption was 20% higher than in 2002, and a further 5% increase was projected for 2007 (USDA, 2006).
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Safety aspect of pork from the Asian countries, particularly China was a big concern to Singapore consumers (Table 3.6). This could be attributed to the recent recalls of many of its products (non-food and food), so that the confidence of consumers might be affected when purchasing products from China. Availability of pork from China is not as great as that from Indonesia for Singapore consumers. Most consumers might not be aware of how pigs from Indonesia are handled before slaughtering, and hence safety becomes a concern. Pigs from Indonesia are reared on an island off Singapore and once they are mature, they are transported to Singapore for slaughtering. Safety concerns for pork from western countries were not a huge issue (Table 3.6).
Texture of pork was not an issue with Singapore consumers as they can use different cooking methods to prepare the pork to ensure a desirable texture. However, price was a main concern for pork from western countries like Canada and New Zealand. At the time of study, the prices of Canadian and New Zealand pork were 2 to 4 times higher than Australian and Indonesian pork, which were very easily available from supermarkets and wet markets in Singapore. Though widely available, Singapore consumers generally found the flavour of Australian pork less desirable compared to that from Indonesia. Therefore, the concerns about of pork flavour warranted a more thorough investigation into what makes Indonesian pork tastier than the Australian equivalent. One of the ways to approach this issue would be to investigate how components in the diets of pigs can influence the overall sensory quality of pork.
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Table 3.6
A comparison of results from the present study (SN – shown in bold in the first data column) against those for seven other countries 1, 2 from Ngapo et al. (2007)
Question Response options
SN CH JA KO IR ME AU NZ
What is your age? <35 55 50 50 50 50 50 50 -
>=35 45 50 50 50 50 50 50 -
Gender? Female 87 50 50 50 50 50 50 61
Male 13 50 50 50 50 50 50 28
Marital status Single 57 27 42 42 49 27 48 32
Married 43 72 58 58 52 73 52 67
How many people in your household? 1 0 1 21 2 6 2 12 9 2 7 13 24 6 27 8 31 35 3 12 64 27 16 24 27 19 18 4 26 12 19 47 32 36 17 17 5+ 55 12 7 31 12 28 22 12
They are: Spouse 35 71 54 56 57 73 52 67
Children 40 62 43 52 44 77 43 44
Parents 61 31 25 53 18 15 24 7
Grandparents 9 2 2 8 1 2 1 0
Others 23 9 5 38 16 23 13 9
Where do you purchase pork? Wet
market/Butcher
28 75 9 54 30 64 49 33
Supermarket 65 26 89 45 54 45 64 82 Others like farm 7 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 Are you the member of your
household who shops for pork?
Yes 44 44 53 85 59 61 58 72
No 56 57 47 15 41 39 42 26
Do you like pork? Yes 80 79 87 82 100 93 80 90
No 20 21 9 18 0 7 20 9
For what reasons you like pork? Availability 38 12 27 63 10 1 11 18 Nutritional quality 29 20 37 36 10 2 24 8 Versatility 29 35 46 10 18 3 14 29 Taste 69 42 58 4 99 92 84 85 Price 13 8 41 11 18 4 24 26
How often do you eat pork? Everyday 9 50 4 1 5 0 0 0 > once/week 66 41 79 64 53 34 23 34 >once/ month 19 9 10 29 29 46 45 39 <once/ month 6 1 8 6 11 20 33 24 How do you cook pork Grill 11 0 82 75 78 33 45 53
Pan fry 43 78 27 6 24 64 28 37
Roast 32 1 23 4 23 9 48 32
Stew 45 46 36 6 8 17 12 5
Boil (soup) 69 14 20 9 3 47 1 1
1Based on the sub-panels of 200 consumers for all countries except New Zealand (327 consumers)
and Singapore (202).
2
Country codes are Singapore (SN), China (CH), Japan (JA), Korea (KO),Ireland (IR), Mexico (ME), Australia (AU), New Zealand (NZ)
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3.5 Conclusions
A consumer survey (n=202) was used to obtain an improved understanding of the perception of pork by Singapore consumers. The consumers liked pork for a variety of reasons, but taste and availability were the main reasons for buying and consuming pork. The present results indicate that most consumers perceived differences in pork from different countries of origin. Australian and Indonesian pork scored highest for availability, while pork from China and Indonesia were considered to be tasty and cheap. This was in contrast with the tastiness of pork from the Western countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil and USA. Flavour attributes of pork from various countries were perceived differently, with an undesirable mutton-like flavour being the most relevant for pork from Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Pork should therefore, be produced in ways to ensure good eating quality, as consumers clearly perceive differences in pork quality and this affects their interest in the meat. It is important to produce pork with good flavour in accordance with consumers’ expectations.