Rabbit In, Rabbit Out: The Consumers’ Acceptability of Rabbit as an Alternative Meat

Abstract

The nutritional content of meat becomes an increasingly important factor in assessing meat quality and consumer acceptance. Rabbit meat was extremely valued for its nutritional and dietary contents. Rabbits have a lot to offer when it comes to health and long-term food. Thus, this study intended to determine the acceptability of rabbits as alternative meat by consumers coming from different households in Tacurong, the Philippines. A Descriptive Survey Research Method was employed and the survey questionnaires were distributed through Google forms. It was transmitted to 392 meat consumers that were randomly chosen. Likert scale and One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to evaluate consumer acceptance. The results showed that the consumers accepted and agreed on the acceptability of rabbits as alternative meat in terms of their healthiness, taste, and price. Hence, the preferred purchasing would be cooked, large farms as a preferred purchasing supplier, and supermarkets as a preferred purchasing location. Chicken meat is the most frequent meat that consumers consume, between one and three days per month, and the common hindering factor of rabbit meat consumption is its lack of availability in the market.