Use of supplementary foods and consumer's conscious level in urban area of Van province

In this study, the ideas of local community lives in urban area of Van city about the consumption of food supplements, their opinions related to these products and the factors that affecting their opinions have been investigated. The study was done at three central district of Van city; İpekyolu, Tuşba and Edremit in January, February and March 2019 and 396 participants over the age of 18 were interviewed face-to-face. In survey, the effect of some demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the participants on the supplementary foods consumption was observed. In the study, the usage ratio of supplementary foods was found to be 36.6% among all participants. 15 % of participants declared the use of supplementary foods but they did not know that the used products fell into this category. It has been found that as the income and education level of the participants increased, the rate of supplementary foods usage increased as well. The most consumed supplementary food category was Vitamin/multivitamin group as 43.7 %. 64.7 % of the consumers stated that they were using supplements with the recommendation of a doctor. 24.7 % of the users stated that they used supplementary foods to relieve fatigue and 20 % to strengthen immunity. In the study, it was found that 67.1 % of consumers preferred to buy supplementary foods from pharmacies. 51.6 % of the participants stated that supplementary foods should be evaluated as food status and 48.4 % of the participants stated that supplementary foods should be evaluated as drug status.