INFLUENCES ON MEAT AVOIDANCE AMONG BRITISH STUDENTS

Male and female undergraduates (18-23 years old; 68% in their first ye ar; N = 158) who had just chosen a vegetarian dish in a campus dining hall or restaurant reported a diversity of meat avoidance habits befor e arrival at University a few weeks previously. More women than men ha d avoided meat and other flesh foods, with the exception of fish. Cons istently with the distinction between ''red'' and ''white'' meats, chi cken and turkey were the least often avoided flesh foods among men and women. The only clear gradation from flesh-eating to vegetarianism wa s eating poultry and either beef/lamb or pork, eating only poultry and eating neither; fish was not on this Guttman scale, contrary to previ ous assumptions. Reasons for avoiding meat and perceived influences on preferences for food in their chosen vegetarian dish were elicited by open-ended interviews in 41 women from the meat-avoidance survey. Rat ionales spontaneously offered were as diverse as reported in previous studies, but always included at least two of the following: ethics of raising/killing animals, concern for health, sensory factors, disgust and influence of friends. In contrast, choices among described variant s of the familiar dish were largely controlled by its sensory and nutr itional features, presumably because other attributes had been factore d out. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited