Food Preferences and Reported Frequency of Consumption of Fruits

Abstract Fruits are an important source of vitamins and minerals, thus, essential components of the human diet. They play a significant role in human nutrition. To understand the relation between the acceptance of various fruits and intractable barriers, Fruit preferences, frequency of consumption of different fruits, the information on the use of various fruits during religious rituals and the most intractable barriers were assessed. A survey was conducted by random sampling technique. A pre-tested, semi-structured food frequency questionnaire was used to collect the information from 528 subjects from 134 households all aged 18 years and above from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. The consumption of vitamin A rich fruits is mostly seasonal. In this category, the consumption of mango was highest (38%) on a daily basis during summer. The frequency of consumption of vitamin C rich fruits was observed to be more on ‘once a month’ basis. As a large variety of fruits are available, the frequency of consumption of particular fruits decreases. However, tomato (ripe) is consumed more (32.8%) on a daily basis and 58.1 percent on weekly 2 or 3 times basis. This study has revealed that though there is a large variety of fruits available in Hyderabad of which most of them can be purchased all over the year and food expenditure though concentrated to a fair extent on the fruits among the residents but still many types of fruits often travel longer distances and are sold at higher prices and hence are considered luxurious and hence are almost consumed occasionally.