Analysis of the key audit issues of the food sector enterprises in the BIST index between 2017-2021

The independent auditor reports are prepared for individuals directly or indirectly inter-ested in a business who seek information about the company. These reports provide as-surance services to investors or stakeholders by providing information on whether there is a significant misstatement in the financial information presented by the business. Eco-nomic crises, accounting frauds, and variations in the presentation of financial reports in the national and international markets have led businesses to take systematic measures. With the changes in the field of auditing, it has become necessary to report key audit matters to provide financial statement users with relevant and understandable infor-mation about the activities of businesses. This study aims to analyze the key audit matters reported in the financial statements of enterprises in the food sector, which is one of the sub-sectors of the Borsa Istanbul Manufacturing Sector, which includes enterprises with high transaction volume and market volume in Turkey, between 2017-2021, key audit matters were examined in de-tail based on the financial statements of food enterprises between 2017-2021. In this context, the research aims to reveal the key audit matters that are important in the food sector by examining the key audit matters (KAM) in the independent auditor's reports of the enterprises traded in the food sector. Within the scope of BDS 701 Standard on Disclosure of Key Audit Matters in the Independent Auditor's Report, the independent auditor's reports published between 2017- 2021 were examined and the results obtained were compared to determine whether the key audit matters of 24 enter-prises in the food sector are similar. In the study, whether the businesses operating in the food industry report similar issues as KAMs, whether the KMAs in the auditor's report are specific to the food industry, the reasons for choosing KMAs, whether independent audit firms affect the KAM re-porting, the connection between the auditor's opinion and the KAM, and It is aimed to examine in terms of factors such as auditing periods applied for selected KAMs. The research was carried out to cover 120 independent auditor reports, and a total of 244 KAMs were identified. According to the results of the research, it has been determined that the most reported key audit issues in the food sector are revenue recognition, tangi-ble assets, inventories and trade receivables. It has been concluded that the numerical and contextual impact of these changes on the reported key audit matters is not signifi-cant in a significant portion of the companies that have changed their independent audit firm in the period that covers the research. Keywords: Key Audit Matters, BDS 701, BIST, Independent Auditor's Report, Food Sector