Food safety awareness of selected urban consumers in Canakkale, Turkey

 ABSTRACT
According to researches, over the past decade 87% of reported outbreaks of food borne diseases in different sides of the world have been associated with food, prepared or consumed at home. These results, showed the importance of the consumer knowledge on food safety. The aim of this project was to determine food safety knowledge of Çanakkale residents. A survey was arranged in order to show the knowledge of quality assurance systems, the general thoughts about food safety and the shopping and handling habits of people. In this research, surveys were responded by 2000 consumers with face-to-face interviews at stands, being set up different sides of the city. From the results, statistical analyses showed that, women and middle age respondents were significantly more careful during food shopping and more interest in food safety issues than men and younger consumers. Consumers with higher education shopped more consciously. However, according to results, nearly all consumers had lack of knowledge especially food quality assurance systems and food safety issues.
Key words: food safety, consumer, survey