Enquêtes sur la consommation, la perception et les utilisations de l’huile de palme rouge chez les ménagères et restauratrices de Yaoundé, Cameroun

Palm oil is now the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. In Cameroon, it is widely used as red oil, which means unrefined, constituting the first food source of vitamin A. However, changes in food consumption of urban households in Cameroon are questioning the role and the part of red oil in the current consumption of fat in households. To answer these questions, a survey was carried out in Yaounde, a multicultural capital chosen because of the diversity of ethnic origins in its population. The present data gathered the results of two surveys carried out in the first half of 2016 in different districts of Yaounde, in the form of two Excel tables stored on the CIRAD Dataverse of the UMR System. Our purposive sampling comprises 124 housewives and 29 restaurant owners' practices of Yaounde. These surveys concern the consumption of edible oils (types of oil and quantities) and, concerning the red oil, the supply practices (supplier, frequency, price and volume), the perception of the quality, the denominations, uses and desired culinary properties to prepare traditional Cameroonian dishes. The diversity of socio-economic characteristics of households and restaurants, as well as the culture of the respondents are also characterized. Without claiming to be representative, these survey results from a large sample, present a picture as close as possible to the practices of housewives and restaurant owners in Yaounde. Regarding edible oils and particularly palm oil, these data will be useful to follow the evolution of edible oils consumption and their use, in Cameroon. It would be advisable to compare the situation of Cameroon to that of other African countries traditionally consumers of red palm oil. This could help verify the increasing tendency of refined oil consumption while there is an emerging growing interest in red oil quality for traditional dishes.