Knowledge and Attitudes About Food Purchasing, Preparing and Cooking Practices of Working and Non-working Women

Abstract

This study was conducted on 600 women (317 o f them working and 283 o f them are non-working) to determine the knowledge and attitudes about food purchasing, preparing and cooking practices, who are living in different districts in Ankara. The mean age ö f the study group w as 36.34±0.42 years and 60.6% o f working women are graduated from high school and 40.6% o f non-workings are graduated from primary school. It was found that mostly working and none working women purehase meat and fısh produets without packaged (75.7%, 83.0 %; 87.1 %, 88.3 %) respectively while milk and eheese with packaged (88.9%), 72.1%; 81.1%), 68.9%) respectively and the differences according to working status was fo u n d s ta tistica lly sig n ific ia n t. Working women were found to read labels o f packaged foods signifıciantly more than nonworking women (p<0.05 ). Women primarily pay attention to expire date, produetion date and prices o f fo o d s on labels (respectively 94.8%), 46.7%,46.4%). In this study it was found that 50.7% o f women cook meats by boiling; 58.5 %o o f them add sugar while cooking the dairy desserts, 37.2 %o o f them cook vegetables, preserving their water and 82.3% o f them parched rice before cooking. The women s knowledge and attitudes about nutritional practices affect ali the individuals in a parent. The data o f the study emphasizes that women, especially non-working women, have to be educated on food groups, healthy food choice, purchasing, preparing and cooking methods.