Fruits and vegetable consumption trends among basic school students in the Kwadaso Municipality Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Abstract

In Ghana and more specifically, in the Ashanti Region, regardless of the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables and numerous efforts by government and other stakeholders to encourage the consumption levels among school-aged children and adults, very little has been achieved. Generally, several factors such as socio-economic and socio-cultural factors, food costs, taste, convenience, and availability are known to influence the consumption of fruits and vegetables. The specific objectives sought to, assess the influence of knowledge of fruits and vegetables consumption on the consumer, evaluate the postharvest handling methods used by students in the postharvest management of fruits and vegetables; and their challenges. The study utilised the quantitative and descriptive research approach. The researcher used simple random sampling to select 120 participants for this study from the various schools in the community. The researcher used observation and questionnaire to collect data from respondents. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and means were used to analyse the data collected. The population for this study covers the entire adult population residing in the Kwadaso Township who are aged 12 years and above. The population is estimated to be about 2000 according to the Ghana Statistical Service. This includes both males and females, educated and uneducated. The study also revealed that students conveyed their fruits and vegetables usually in polythene bags and jute sacs. It was also noticed that, the method of conveying was dependent on how longer or shorter the distances under consideration. Most of the losses that were recorded in fruits and vegetables consumption were mainly during the storage stage and in the course of transit. Most of the labour or workforce for the production of fruits and vegetables were aged people. The study recommends that partly prepared fruits and vegetables could be prepared for students who are unable to consume due to their busy schedules so that they could carry them along in order to increase their consumption.