Challenges Consumer Face In Selecting Quality Meat

There is a remarkable increase in the level of awareness about the way food is produced, stored, transported, preserved, cooked, and consumed.

- Siddhant Wangdi

Each stage is immensely vital and cannot be ignored at any cost. The consumers want to know about the place of origin of the food that they eat in addition to several other points of concern. Buying meat is a daily activity and requires knowledge and information. The focus of this article is on the everyday challenges faced by a consumer while buying meat at the market.

India is a country of 1.3 billion people. A survey was undertaken by the Sample Registration System (SRS) in 2014 reported that Indians, especially of the ever so growing middle class, are non-vegetarians. The survey also stated that India’s meat market is valued at approximately $30 billion with an annual growth of 20-25 percent. Thus, statistics make it even more necessary that consumers need to be aware of the risks and the ways to avoid those risks while buying the best quality meat. Consumers are facing lots of challenges while selecting meat for their consumption; some of the main challenges faced by consumers are listed below:

Unorganized Market

The large part of the meat market is still unorganized

Indian meat markets are largely operated in traditional ways. A considerable percentage of consumers still buy their meat from wet markets. The bazaars, local butchers, makeshift shops and mandis are still abuzz with meat vendors catering to the highly demanding consumer-base of meat eaters. This unorganized market has a huge potential to bring in changes to provide better meat to consumers. However, currently, the handling, hygiene, and storage still remain questionable in terms of quality. Contaminated meat with no warnings can be spotted at these markets because of the lack of scrutiny. Therefore, the chances of risks increase when meat is being purchased from this unorganized market.

Hygiene is not on the Menu

Serious trouble with hygiene and handling of the meat