| Abstract [eng] |
Semi-finished food products include frozen dumplings, potato dumplings, pizza and others. Ready-to-eat food is sandwiches, various salads, meat products or other products usually prepared in the store itself. The benefits of semi-finished and ready-to-eat food for a person depend on the composition and method of heat treatment, as well as the storage conditions of the products. The biggest advantage of semi-finished and ready-to-eat foods is that these foods are quick and easy to prepare. The downside of consuming this type of food is that these products are rarely beneficial for health. The aim To evaluate the consumption of ready-to-eat food and semi-finished products and knowledge about them by residents of Vilnius city. Work tasks: • To determine the prevalence of consumption of ready-to-eat food and semi-finished products. • To survey (investigate) what are the reasons for the selection of semi-finished and ready-to-eat food by the residents of the city of Vilnius. • To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the consumption of ready-to-eat food and semi-finished products by residents of the city of Vilnius. Research methods Survey of residents of Vilnius city municipality. Research findings and results Most of the research participants consume semi-finished and ready-to-eat foods for lunch and dinner. We tend to choose semi-finished and ready-to-eat food products when, for some reason, we don't want to or don't have time to cook, so there was no strong correlation between the consumption of these products and the variables: gender, education, income, distance to the store, and others. It could be argued that the situation in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic affected the consumption habits of semi-finished and ready-to-eat food products of more than half of the study participants. The consumption of semi-finished products during the COVID-19 pandemic decreased for most of the respondents, while the consumption of ready-to-eat food increased for the majority of respondents during this situation. Keywords: semi-finished products, ready-to-eat food, consumption, population. |
