Studying the pattern and per capita consumption of fish in the urban households of Chabahar Port

In the group of animal proteins, the use of aquatic animals has always been considered as one of the most important protein sources, because nutritionally, they have significant amounts of long-chain unsaturated fatty acids, low cholesterol, some types of vitamins and minerals, and proteins with high nutritional value. In the present study, the pattern and per capita of fish consumption in the urban households of Chabahar Port in 2019 was investigated.

In this study, according to the population of Chabahar city, 383 questionnaires were prepared and completed in person by the respondents. A standard formula was used to estimate the average amount of fish consumption. 52.22% of the interviewed people were women and 47.78% were women. The highest age category of the interviewed people belonged to the age group of 36-45 years. In terms of the number of people in the household and the type of job, families with 3 or 4 children and government jobs had the highest frequency, respectively.

The priority of meat consumption among Chabahari households was chicken, red meat and fish respectively. More than 34% of households consumed fish more than 6 times a month. Wild fish (including barracuda, narrow-barred Spanish mackerel and black pomfret) was the main priority for purchasing fish in more than 94% of Chabahar households. The results also showed that "freshness" and "usefulness" of fish were respectively the main priority and criteria for choosing fish among the respondents.  

 In the present study, the per capita of fish consumption in urban households of Chabahar was equal to 27.13 kg/person/year, which indicates the good status of fish consumption as a valuable protein source in Chabahar city.