Talk:Goherr: Task 5.3 Determinants of fish eating habits

Organizing the questionnaire

• Finland, Sweden, Estonia, (Denmark?)
• Do we need statistically representative random sample?
  • Postal survey? More expensive, intensive, laborious. Resources will not allow use of any company, so we need to make a postal survey by ourselves.
  • Phone survey by a company? Taloustukimus does these also in other countries, might be expensive Päivi: Why not ask what it would cost? This might be the best alternative with respect to the sample and respond rate.
• Email questionnaire by some survey company? Limits study population on consumers with internet access (this might no be a problem as it's anticipated that dioxin does not affect on eating habits in the older groups). Päivi: If phone survey is too expensive, maybe this is the only solution.
• Tested in the stakeholder workshop, session where participants answer on-line or on paper. Päivi: If time turns out too scarce for a testing session, the questionnaire could be handed out to the participants at the beginning of the workshop with a request to fill it in during the two days and to point out flaws (and potentially to discuss them with Arja). Also, it is useful to ask all project participants to test the questionnaire.

Content of the questionnaire

• Age
• Gender
• City
• Level of education
• Do you eat fish? Yes/No
  • If No: Skip the whole questionnaire or ask reasons for not eating fish at all? --# : ask reasons for not eating fish --Päivi Haapasaari
  • If Yes: Which of the following do you eat at least sometimes? ⇤# : Do we need a question like this? I think not, the only relevant question is "Do you eat Baltic herring / Salmon?" --Arja (talk) 08:29, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

←# : Agree, but if possible, could we just ask a simple open question "what fish do you eat?" - to get an overview of Baltic fish eating vs. tuna etc. --Päivi Haapasaari

• • • List of fish species
• If Yes for Baltic Herring --# : We need to clarify what we mean by Baltic Herring --Arja (talk) 08:29, 11 November 2015 (UTC)
  • What are the main three reasons for you to eat Baltic Herring? (or "Priorities the following based on your reasons for eating Baltic Herring, 1 = most important reason, leave empty if not relevant at all"):
    • I like the taste of it
    • It's easily available
    • It's easy to cook
    • There are lot of dishes that can be made out of it
    • It's healthy
    • I'm used to eating it
    • It's a traditional food in my country
    • Ethical reasons --# : could here be an option for clarification - "what ethical reason"? --Päivi Haapasaari
    • Other reasons?
  • How often do you eat Baltic Herring? --# : How to ask these to get useful data? Do people know difference between herring and Baltic herring? Size separation might be impossible --Arja (talk) 06:20, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

--# : Maybe this should be clarified by referring to catch area. It is mostly in Denmark and Sweden that there are both in market, but maybe people in those countries are then more aware of the difference?? --Päivi Haapasaari

• • • 5 - 7 times per week
    • 2 - 4 times per week
    • once a week
    • 1 - 3 times per month
    • 5 - 10 times per year
    • 1 - 4 times per year
  • How much on average do you eat Baltic Herring per serving? Try to estimate the amount as a whole fish (which size of fish?) even if eating it in some other form. --# : Is this too difficult questions? Should we use some average estimation as serving size? --Arja (talk) 08:29, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

--# : it may be a bit difficult especially what comes to the size of fish - easier to assess how many fish one eats per serving --Päivi Haapasaari

• • • 1 - 3 fish
    • 4 - 6 fish
    • 7 - 9 fish
    • 10 or more
  • If not eating Baltic Herring: What are the main three reasons for you not to eat Baltic Herring? (or "Priorities the following based on your reasons of not eating Baltic Herring, 1 = most important reason, leave empty if not relevant at all"):
    • Don't like the taste
    • Not easily available
    • Difficult to cook
    • Because of the harmful chemicals in it
    • I just prefer to eat some other fish species
    • Ethical reasons --# : again, "what ethical reasons?" --Päivi Haapasaari
    • Negative environmental impacts of Baltic Herring --# : what does this mean? --Päivi Haapasaari
    • Because its not recommended --# : recommended by who/what? --Päivi Haapasaari
    • Haven't used to eat it (not offered at home)
    • Something else?
• If Yes for Baltic Salmon
  • What are the main three reasons for you to eat Baltic Salmon (or "Priorities the following based on your reasons for eating Baltic Salmon, 1 = most important reason, leave empty if not relevant at all"):
    • I like the taste of it
    • It's easily available
    • It's easy to cook
    • There are lot of food that can be made out of it
    • It's healthy
    • I'm used to eating it
    • It's traditional food in my country
    • Ethical reasons --# : additional open question: what? --Päivi Haapasaari
    • --# : what about an option related to "local food" - the same for herring? And regarding salmon, maybe there should be an option related to recreational fishing --Päivi Haapasaari
  • How often do you eat Baltic Salmon?
    • 5 - 7 times per week
    • 2 - 4 times per week
    • once a week
    • 1 - 3 times per month
    • 5 - 10 times per year
    • 1 - 4 times per year
  • How much on average do you eat Baltic Salmon per serving? Try to estimate the amount as grams even if eating it as part of some other food. --# : Is this too difficult questions? Should we use some average estimation as serving size? --Arja (talk) 08:29, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

--# : it may be a bit difficult. --Päivi Haapasaari

• • If not eating Baltic Salmon: What are the main three reasons for you not to eat Baltic Salmon? (or "Priorities the following based on your reasons of not eating Baltic Salmon, 1 = most important reason, leave empty if not relevant at all"):
    • Don't like the taste
    • Not easily available
    • Difficult to cook
    • Because of the harmful chemicals in it
    • I just prefer to eat some other fish species (or other Salmon)
    • Ethical reasons --# : again additional question: what?) --Päivi Haapasaari
    • Negative environmental impacts of Baltic Salmon --# : what does this mean? --Päivi Haapasaari
    • Because its not recommended --# : by whom? - interesting to know whether this would relate to safeguarding the salmon stocks or to health impacts --Päivi Haapasaari
    • Haven't used to eat it (not offered at home)
    • Something else?
• Do you limit your consumption of Baltic sea fish (Herring and Salmon) because of the harmful chemicals in it? Yes/No
  • If Yes: Do you think you would consume more Baltic sea fish, if the amount of harmful chemicals would be lower? Yes/No
    • If yes: How much more often? --# : How to formulate this --Arja (talk) 08:29, 11 November 2015 (UTC)
• Are you familiar with the health benefits of eating fish? Yes/No

• --# : what about the demand of different sizes of herring now and in the future? What kind of fish dishes are eaten and will be eaten, and how this affects the demand of different sizes of herring? --Päivi Haapasaari

--# : This is a difficult issue. We can ask hoe people predict their use of Baltic Herring to change in the future, but how to translate it into demand of different sizes? --Arja (talk) 06:29, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

Other related information

Pro-Kala has done in Finland (2010) a questionnaire

• 724 participants
• Questions on use frequencies, type of consumed fish foods, attitudes on herring, how fish eating is predicted to change in the future
  • 70% of participants consume herring at least time to time
  • 24% predicts that use of herring might increase in the near future
• Includes also question “I’ve stopped eating herring because of dioxins”
  • Seems not to influence on use of herring
• Based on the questionnaire, population was divided into four groups of consumers: 23% spoiled youngsters (uusavuttomia), 14% critical hi-fi enthusiast, 37% passionate herring lovers and 26% concerned tradition treasurers