ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER PREFERENCE TO CHOPPED SEMI-FINISHED GOODS FROM SHEEP MEAT OF MONGOLIAN BREED

The article shows the socio-economic importance of meat of different types of livestock as the staple food product for the population of Mongolia. Meat of five species of pasture animals has special value and safety. They are camels, horses, cattle, goats, and sheep. Despite a persistent tendency to increase the number of sheep and goats, about 1/10 of meat is processed. Considering the fact that a significant part of the country's population prefers healthy food products, there is an urgent need to produce high-quality meat products of guaranteed safety. The results of the research on consumer preferences of the residents of Darkhan-Uul city (the second largest city of Mongolia) to chopped semifinished goods from Mongolian sheep meat - lyulya-kebab - characterized by unique recipe, technology of mincing and cooking are given. To determine the value of the quality indices the pairwise comparison method is used. To calculate the value of the lyulya-kebab indices the main indices of consumer preferences have been determined. They are appearance, taste, smell, consistency, utility, safety, and price. Based on the results of the survey of the members of the expert group a set of indices has been estimated. The assessment of the value coefficients of the product's quality indices shows that the most significant indices for consumers are food safety (value coefficient of 0.254), healthiness (value coefficient of 0.194) and taste (value coefficient of 0.159), which indicates the need to take into account these characteristics when developing an innovative food product - lyulya-kebab from Mongolian sheep meat. At the same time, it is necessary to link high nutritional value of meat of Mongolian pasture animals with its health benefits.