Investigation of consumer awareness about food safety and food inspections of individuals

Food safety inspections are an essential health protection measure implemented by governments to prevent foodborne illnesses, but they constantly come under criticism. These criticisms include the inconsistent and insufficient methods used in inspections and their low effectiveness in preventing foodborne diseases. Investigating the validity of these criticisms is an important area for future research. But above all, there is a need to establish a clear structure regarding society's influence on food safety inspections. The aim of this study is to investigate consumer attitudes towards food safety and food inspection. This study is a survey study on the subject, the data in the study was collected via Google Form and the study was processed with the information collected from 454 people who participated in the survey via Google Form. SPSS 23 package program was used to analyze the data. According to the survey results, 75.6% of the individuals stated that they check the production and expiry dates when purchasing packaged food. To the question "I examine the ingredients section when purchasing packaged food", 47.4% of individuals answered always and 47.4% answered sometimes. Again, 74.9% of individuals stated that they are careful not to let raw and cooked foods, meat and vegetables come into contact with each other while preserving them. This shows that the majority of consumers generally have a conscious attitude when purchasing food. However, 28.4% of individuals answered that if there is an expired packaged food in the refrigerator, "I will taste or smell it; if there is no change, I will not throw it away". The question "Do you follow the brands that are exposed as imitation/adulter etc. on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry?" were asked to the individuals, and the majority answered "No" with a rate of 43.2%. This resulted in the conclusion that the participants should be made aware of food safety, expiration date, against possible poisoning risks and to follow the right sources of information to reach safe food. As a result of the study; It has been determined that there is a statistically significant, weak and positive relationship between individuals' food purchasing and food storage and food safety situations, and a weak, positive relationship between food storage and food purchasing scales.