The background information on Gender, place of residence and source of purchase of meat and meat products by consumers has been depicted in Table 1. It had been observed that among the consumers the majority was Male (89.12%). In country food associated household works is finished by females, but still the buying of meat from market handled by males by majority of population within the country (Kiran et al., 2018; Kumar et al., 2014). The advantage of the present study is that the urban and rural consumers were 54.92 and 45.08 percent, respectively which represent a diversified population of the state of Maharashtra (GOI, 2020). Some factors associated with gender, place of residence (Urban or Rural), consumption pattern generally have a consequence on meat consumption preferences (Gossard et al., 2003).The majority of consumers favoured chicken meat (77.32 %), followed by Mutton (63.41 %) and other kind of meat (19.59 %). The preference and consumption of chicken meat are often considered as a universal phenomenon and chicken meat is greatly accepted by consumers worldwide as compared to the other meat consumption. The rise in chicken meat consumption could be due to the versatility of the meat, relatively low cost compare to other meat, the acceptance of the chicken meat to all or any religions and increase in the household income (Kiran et al., 2014; Mohana et al., 2014). Similar finding has been reported by many scholars (Kiran et al., 2018; Karthikeyan et al. 2013). The majority of consumers responded that they usually consume nonveg diet 1 to 2 times a week (70.62%) and the rest of the consumers (29.96%) like to consume 3 to 4 times a week. Almost 71.26 % of the consumers usually preferred to purchase from known shops only, where they frequent to get the meat and the majority of consumers (70.62%) has mentioned this meat shops are located at less than 1 km distance from their residence. This constitutes one way of ensuring the quality of meat.

Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. Food safety has emerged as a very important global issue with international trade and public health implications. So as to make sure that the food sectors match up to the best global standards, the Government of India enacted an integrated food law called the Food Safety and Standards Act in August 2006 under this law Food Safety and Standards Authority of India was established which is that the regulating body associated with food safety and laying down of standards of food in India (http://www.fssai.gov.in/). These authorities set standards and license the manufacture of food products which are healthy and safe. A current survey revealed that nearly 85.49 % (No + Don’t Know) consumers were unaware about whether the meat selling shops where since they buy non veg products registered with FSSAI or not and about 47.42% consumers said this meat selling shops stink and smells bad. Within the present study, about half (42.78%) consumers weren’t satisfied with the hygienic conditions and cleaning practices adapted by meat shops.

The non-veg consumption pattern and preferences for non-veg by consumers are given in Table 2. Majority of consumers favoured hot, fresh meat prepared in front of their eye (90.21%) rather than frozen or chilled meat (9.39%). Parallel finding was testified by various scholars (Kumar et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2019; Verbeke, 2001). Consumers of the present study showed higher preference to whole carcass i.e. all body parts of carcass collectively (56.19%) rather than specific parts (43.81%) which could be accredited to cultural habituation. Also, the majority of consumers responded that they usually choose skinless chicken (68.59%). Ritual slaughter as the name proposes is based on religious beliefs of a particular religion. Religion as a part of culture impacts consumer attitude and behaviour in general (Pettinger et al., 2004), and food buying decisions and eating behaviours (Mullen et al., 2004). Divergent to the above statement, current data indicated that more than half (53.76%) consumers have not influence for ritual slaughter on buying choice.

Value added processed meat products increase expediency to consumers by diminishing preparation time and curtailing processing steps. They are apprehending their share in the market. The growth of value-added processed meat products in the country is promising and is providing a massive opportunity for entrepreneurship progress (Kondaiah, 2004). Although, we are producing huge quantity of meat only just 3% of meat is laid open to processing. Along with this street food vending has become a frightening public health question and various studies have identified oodles of disease-causing organisms in street foods. Surprisingly, about 67.88% consumers were not interested to buy ready to eat meat products from meat shops. This could be due to inexperience about processed food available in the market. Similar finding was reported from Bangalore city where the majority of consumers unaware to processed food (Kiran et al., 2018).

With the advancement of in acquaintance about the food they consume, the consumers have become more cautious regarding the quality and health aspects of foods (Selvan et al., 2007). A direct link between acquaintance about food safety and lifestyle has been studied by scholars (Abdullahi et al., 2016) Recent studies specified that consumers are concerned about the safety of non-veg food, but they have poor ability to differentiate meat (Li, 2012; Liang et al., 2014). The data regarding hygienic considerations and expectation of consumers depicted in Table 3.

From the obtained data it is revealed that about 82.38% consumers show their interest to buy minimally handle machine cut hygienic meat. They also showed willingness to purchase home delivery of neatly packaged non-veg product home delivered (66.84%). The current finding showed consumers (86.17%) are ready to pay a slightly higher price for hygienic, clean non-veg products. About 36.27% of the consumers were unaware about safe storage of meat and meat products for more than three days, which restrict the sale and consumption of frozen or chilled packaged meat products. This could be due to 45.60% consumers were unaware of the quality guiding principle for chicken or mutton. On the query regarding inevitability to raise awareness, almost all consumers (96.89%) were agreeing on the need to spread knowledge and awareness about quality, hygienic production and safety standards for meat.