ABSTRACT

Food system is an intricate web of interconnected activities that link food production, processing, distribution, and consumption. These components work together to ensure that food reaches our plates while considering human health and environmental sustainability. The study have evaluated the Knowledge, Attitude And Perception Towards Food System And Sustainable Diets Among Under Graduate In Michael Okpara University Umudike, Abia State. A multistage sampling was used to select undergraduate students in MOUAU. A well-structured and validated questionnaire was used to collect information on demographic/socio economic characteristics, knowledge of food system, knowledge of sustainable diets, to access perception of sustainable diets, to access attitude towards sustainable diets and sustainable food consumption diets among 307 undergraduates in MOUAU. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (Frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation). The result revealed that majority (65.2%) of the students were females, majority (41.6%) of the participants were aged between 19-24 years which are usually the age range of undergraduate students in Nigeria Universities. The result shows that majority 90.2% of the student knows everything they consume is using some of the natural resources available on earth. It shows that 58.4% of the student has good knowledge on food system, 29.3% of the student has average knowledge on food system and 12.3% of the student has poor knowledge. Knowledge of sustainable diets result showed that 62.8% of the student has positive good knowledge, 24.3% of the student has average knowledge and 12.5% of the student has poor knowledge.  The result on sustainable food consumed showed that majority 67.5% of the students occasionally buy organic foods like egg, apple, pears and vegetables and 67.2% of the student agrees that they occasionally eat meat once at most once a week or a little at a time. The study concludes that the reason for poor knowledge of food system and sustainable include Lack of education and awareness, Misinformation and Marketing. The study therefore recommends nutritional awareness on the essence of eating healthy foods and sustainable plant based foods so as to enhances their food choices and help build up the body and stronger immune systems.