Determination of Consumer Knowledge Level, Preferences and Attitudes Towards Lentils Which is An Important Vegetable Protein Source and Evaluation in Case of Gastronomic Value

Abstract

This study was performed with 330 consumers by using an online survey to examine knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors and to determine the effect of sociodemographic factor of consumers on lentil consumption. The importance of lentil in the history, its role in religious terms, nutritional content, health benefits, and the use of lentils in the food industry as an alternative product were summarized from literature research. Chi-square test, t-test and one-way analysis of variance test (ANOVA) in the evalua- tion of data; Scheffe test was used to determine the direction of the differences. The results of factors such as knowledge level, consumption preferences, consumption habits, consumption frequency, consumption reasons were obtained and evaluated. 39.2% of the participants consumed lentil once in 2 weeks, 33.4% once or twice a week; 77.5% consume lentil as a soup. We see that lentil is consumed mostly as lentil soup, a traditional form, at the first order. The awareness of consumers must be increased to improve consumption of lentil with different alternative forms, such as a source of high vegetable protein, dietary fiber and must be informed for consumption options together with traditional recipes.