Evaluation of university students' knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on food safety

It is aimed with this research to point out the differences between the evaluation of university students' knowledge, attitude and behavior about food safety and the departments they have studied through the datas collected and the demographic variables. This research's sample consists of the 630 üniversity students who study Food Engineering, Gastronomy and culinary Arts, Nursing and Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation at Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University where the research is conducted. The datas that were collected by means of questionnaires were analysed at the packet data analysis programme T- Test, One Way Anova and Chi-Squared tests were carried out on the analyses. In addition, correlation analysis was carried out to evoluate the relation between the knowledge, attitude and behavior scores of food safety. It is detected that the participants' total knowledge (23,63±3,61), attitude (49,73±6,33) and behavior (9,86±1,70) scores, with the datas collected when studied through maximum and minimum rates, are above the average. When the participants' replies to certain questions that would indicate their knowledge scores are studied, it is established that most of the participants gave correct answers to the questions about perishable goods' storage conditions, processing food, food packaging, hand hygiene, disease symptoms originated from the consumed food, disease risk groups that are caused by the consumed food, food allergies and they agreed that consumers are responsible of the products they have purchased. When the participants' attitude statements are studied, it is established that most of the participants are worried about the pesticide, vet drug residues and heavy metal pollution on food and they think that diseases that are caused by the consumed food have strong health and economic impacts on the society. In behavior statements, it is indicated that most of the participants make sure that their kitchen appliances and their kitchens are well cleaned, they wash their dishes with hot water and their hands are disinfected. When the participants' knowledge, attitude and behavior scores about food safety considering the departments they are studying, it is established that the students who study Gastronomy and Culinary Arts have the highest score (25,46±2,85), the students who study Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation have the lowest score (21,81±3,27). On food safety attitude, the students who study Gastronomy and Culinary Arts have the highest score (51,42±5,58), the students who study Food Engineering have the lowest score (49,00±6,07); On food safety behavior, the students who study Food Engineering have the highest score (10,12±1,69), the students who study Nursing have the lowest score (9,69±1,77). It is established that there is a significant difference between the participants' knoewledge and attitude scores of food safety considering the departments they are studying (p<0.05). When it is studied in terms of demographic variables, it is found out that the participants who studied food safety on their departments have significantly higher scores on food safety knowledge (24,93±2,96), attitude (50,36±5,57) and behavior (9,98±1,63) than the participants who did not study food safety; the fourth grade have significantly higher scores on food safety knowledge (24,45±3,16) and behaviour (10,20±1,60) than the freshmen, sophomores and third-year, the participants who had a foodborne disease caused by the food they consumed have a significantly higher scores on food safety attitude than the participants who did not have that kind of a disease. It is established that the participants' knowledge, attitude and behavior have a positive relation based on the correlation analysis that was conducted on the food safety scores.