The knowledge, approach and attitude of women regarding food safety

This research has been planned and conducted so as to find out the knowledge, approaches and attitudes of women regarding food safety in food purchasing and consumption.The population of the study consists of married women at various age groups and education levels living in Mengen, a district of Bolu and Kırka, a small town of Seyitgazi, Eskişehir. 435 women having various socio-cultural and income levels living in Kırka and Mengen have been selected by random sampling method and an Interview form prepared by the researcher has been used as the data collection tool.The statistical analysis of the ınterview forms have been made by using SPSS 15.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) on the computer.The personal info of the women have been put into tables after classified, the differences among the groups have been identified by applying cross table method and using Chi square test, the educational and age groups have been taken into consideration as independent variable and the results obtained from the tables have been announced.Similarly, Whether there has been a relationship between the approaches, attitudes and knowledge scores of women regarding food safety has been tried to be figured out by means of Pearson Correlation Coefficient.In the study a variance analysis has been conducted to find out the possible differences of the approaches, attitudes and knowledge of women among various age groups and Pearson Correlation Moment Coefficent has been put into effect to find out whether a significant relation exists between the women?s ages and their knowledge, approach and attitude scores.In the study the groups, firstly has been tested through the homogeneity of the variences test and since they have found out to be homogeneous one way variance analysis has been applied. Along with these findings, the scores of the women in food safety have been evaluated and the behaviours of the women have been discussed on the basis of to be right and wrong .The findings of the study reveal that among the women in question it has been found out that 51% of them are at the age of 31-40, more than half of their education levels are primary school level or even below this level, most of them (80%) are housewives, most of them(72.4%) have lived either at villages or towns, and nearly half of them have been married for 11-20 years and mostly have children. Most of the women prepare 2-3 meals at home themselves and mostly think that they have knowledge about food safety.Television and the families of the women come in the first place in their being informed on the subject of food safety.In the families generally the couples decide together to buy the food and buy it together and nearly half of them always and quite an important part sometimes prepare shopping lists. However, most of the time the shopping list has been violated. While buying food it is common to notice the production and expiry dates as well as the TSE and food brands.In accordance with the findings a positive relation has been found out between the women?s attitudes and their approach scores about food safety. (r = 0,602; P < 0,05 ve P < 0,01).Their attitude and knowledge scores are also found to be bearing a positive relation (r = 0,475; P < 0,05 ve P < 0,01).In this respect no significant difference is observed according to their age groups on the basis of attitude and approach total scores, but a significant difference is revealed between the groups regarding their total knowledge scores.When total attitude scores are examined, it can be said that all three age groups have an attitude pattern of middle scale regarding food safety ( below 30 X=46,63;between 31 -40 X= 46,84; 41 and over X = 46,79).When total approach scores are evaluated no significant differencence is observed between the women?s approaches to food safety according to age groups (below 30 X= 16,54; between 31 -40 X= 16,73; 41 and over X= 16,67).In terms of total knowledge scores of food safety a significant difference has been found out according to the women?s age groups (F= 5,264; P=0,006). According to the results of Sheffe t test used to find out the source of the existing differences between the groups, a significant difference is observed between the women in the age group of 30 and below with the other two groups.No significant difference is found out between the subject women?s ages and their approach and attitude scores. This is also verified by variance analysis results carried out according to the age groups.According to one way variance analysis results carried out to find out whether a significant difference exists between the women?s attitude, approach and knowledge scores in accordance with their educational background, no significant difference has been observed in attitude scores, however in their total approach and knowledge scores according to their educational background a significant difference has been observed between the groups.Key words: food safety , food hygiene, consumer, consumer behaviour