A total of 250 questionnaires were collected in which majority of
the respondents were female (95.2%) (Table 1). The ratio of female
respondents to male respondents reflected the role of female as
home food preparers in Asian household. The age group peaked at
31e40 years, which accounted for 35.6%. In terms of education
background, 62.4% of respondents had only primary education
level. More than half of the households had income under hardcore
level (70%). According to Poverty Line Income (PLI) for Sabah
household income, monthly household income less than RM540
was considered as hardcore poverty, and monthly household
income less than RM960 was categorized as poor (Economic
Planning Unit, 2007). Since most of the respondents were housewife
without salary (70.8%), they could not contribute to household
income. Moreover, most respondents actually came from big families
with at least 6 family members (66.4%) and 56% of them had at
least 3 children at home. This large number of family members will
further burden the expenses of the household. About three-quarter
(78.8%) of the food preparers prepared their meal at home daily.