Criteria Of Food Selection Criteria

2.2 Food Selection Criteria

Consumers select foods that will appeal their taste, smells good, nice touch and loaded with nutrients. All these demands are affected by some criteria’s such as cultural values, social and psychological influences and their budgets. Food selection criteria are (1). Sensory Criteria: human senses are used to evaluate a particular food. People usually selected the food item which taste’s, smell’s and touch good. (2). Nutritional Criteria: increasing awareness of health and nutrition has made people conscious about their health and fitness which greatly influence their food selection. (3). Cultural Criteria: a huge variety of foods are now available in surrounding but culture of consumers affect their selection as Muslims must eat halal food as this is meant to be their religion. (4). Psychological and

It is different across households, food preference, income, prices and culture. A study was conducted to analyze and project food demand in Pakistan. Changes in the prices of milk, meat and their products had changed the dietary practices of peoples. Analysis of food demand is considered to be the primary concern of a developing country as it is related to food security. The main components ensuring food security are its availability, accessibility, affordability and purchase ability of a consumer. A term food demand include demand for grains, fruits, vegetables, pulses, meat, milk, eggs and fish. Income is one of the factor affecting the food demand. Natural disasters, energy crises and many other causes has reduced the income of individuals of Pakistan and thus reduced the purchasing power and increased the poverty level of Pakistan. According to this study 50% of Pakistan’s population has poor access to food. One of the reasons behind this is the household size which makes difficult to meet food demand of each family member (Hayat, Hussain & Yousaf.