CLUES FOR THE SELECTION OF TECHNICAL-QUALITATIVE ATTRIBUTES IN CHARCOAL FOR BARBECUE USE

Currently, much of the world's production charcoal is destined to cooking food in cookers, wood stoves, and grills, barbecue mainly in developing countries. However, in these countries, there are no official regulations to provide high-quality products. The objective of this study was to investigate some of the main technical and qualitative aspects of charcoal used for barbecue, providing clues for future actions to awaken the attention of consumers to assist in choosing during the acquisition of the product. Charcoal was divided into five categories: supermarket chain, independent supermarkets, meat house, gas stations, and one called "others". Ten stores of each category were randomly selected to collect charcoal packages, where all the brands present at the time of collection were sampled. The collections took place in two distinct years to verify the seasonality of the products. The frequency of the brands, location of suppliers, prices, and informative aspects of the packages was analyzed in detail. The prices of the products presented significant changes, with a significant increase in the charcoal marketed by the supermarket chain category. Trademarks collected in the supermarket chain category presented the greatest amount of information and attributes in the packaging of charcoal, it largely does provide better quality charcoal.