Abstract:
The study was conducted in Public Market of Baguio City to determine the potential consumers of indigenous fruits, to identify the factors affecting the acceptability of indigenous fruits to consumer and to determine the acceptability of indigenous fruits to consumers in terms of appearance, taste, texture, aroma, color, size and price. A total of 50 respondents evaluated the fruits. Result of the evaluation showed that indigenous fruits were accepted and liked by the respondents. Majority of the respondents were aware of the nutritional value of the food they consume and among the consideration in the choice of food. Indigenous fruits could be accepted because it has nutritious and affordable.
The potential consumers of indigenous fruits are mostly female, with an age ranging from 17-45 years old. Majority of the respondents were already married and most of them are saleslady, housekeepers, laborer and others. Majority of the respondents are high school graduate and mostly from Benguet, Province. Most of them were Roman Catholic and majority of them have Php 3,000.00 and Php 5,000.00 household average monthly incomes. The factors affecting the respondents in consuming indigenous fruits are health benefits of fruits, taste and physical appearance, and safeness of the fruits. Affordability, availability, curiosity of the consumers, and preferred by their family members was rated as moderately affects consumption. The fact that the product was not prohibited by their culture was rated as slightly affect consumption.
The level of acceptability evaluation of the indigenous fruits, all respondents stated that they tried and tested before the indigenous fruits and they are also willing to buy and avail the different kinds of indigenous fruits in the market. With regards to the acceptability evaluation, majority of the respondents acceptable the indigenous fruits according to its appearance, taste, color, size and price.
