Assessment of food quality of the population as one of the important social problems

Abstract

The current problem of the nutrition quality of elderly people, as the most numerous and rapidly growing sociodemographic group, is considered. It is known that nutrition is practically the only means of increasing a person’s life expectancy by 25–40%, while the range of specialized products for this social and age category is very limited. The aim of the study was to identify the level of consumption of certain food products by people of old age and to constitute its correspondence to the physiological norms of consumption. The developed survey questionnaire used the model of measuring the latent variable. The analysis revealed qualitative nutritional problems of the studied social-age category, associated primarily with the level of income, attitude to the country of origin and the quality of food, physiological features of consumers. In the questionnaires the respondents indicated the volume of their average daily consumption of certain products, which made it possible to identify deviations from the physiological norms of consumption, which were of both kinds: abuse and undersupply of certain foods. The dependencies between the level of the average monthly income of elderly people and the consumption of cheap (potato and bread) food have been revealed. Some suggestions and recommendations for improving the quality of nutrition are, therefore, increasing the life expectancy of people in the elderly age and as a result improving the health of the nation and the quality of life in the country. The rationale for the industrialization process in the production of functional food products is to identify the needs of the population for certain food groups, compare recommended and real level of consumption of separate functional food ingredients and to suggest measures in order to normalize the nutritional status of the studied group of population.