Determining the Knowledge About Food Additives and Factors Noticed During Food Shopping Among Hacettepe University Staff

Abstract

This descriptive study was conducted to determine factors noticed during fo o d shopping, packaged fo o d consumption status and knowledge levels about fo o d additives among academic and a dm in is tra tiv e s ta f f w o rk in g at H a c e tte p e University Faculty o f Pharmacy and College o f Foreigrı Languages. Study is conducted on 204 attendants. Of the staff, 77.6% were women and 61.0% were academic. Mean age o f the study group was 37.02±8.7 years. O f the participants 99.5% stated that they read the labels when they buy food. Most preferred packaged fo o d was vegetable oil (95.1%) and least preferred was bread (18.5%) and nuts (18.0%). O f the participants 58.0% consume unpackaged meat, 32.2% unpackaged chicken, 2.0% unpackaged yoğurt, and 6.3% unpackaged milk. O f the participants, 22.0%} and 21.5% were stated that they don't buy sausage and salami respectively, also 69.3% and 62.4%) buy sausage and salami unpackaged. Of the staff, 29.3% consume instant soup, 27.3% consume meat-bullions, 40.0% consume seasoning and 19.5% consume ready-mix juice. There isn't any statistically significant relation between consumption o f these foods and whether the sta ff is academic or administrative. Staff working in Faculty o f Pharmacy consumes more instant soup and this difference is statistically signifıcant ( 2= 12.2, p<0.01). There were no statistically signifıcant relation between schools and consumption o f meat-bullions, seasoning and readymix juice (p>0.05). O f the participants, 12.9% does not know about "Food Additives", 2.0% knows it wrong, 78.1% knows it missing and 6.9 knows it right. When the knowledge level is grouped as "knows" and "don't know" there are no signifıcant relation between two schools (2=1.1, p=0.2). O f the participants, 40.6% does not know about "E codes", 25.5% knows it wrong, 26.6% knows it missing and 7.3 knows it right. Staff o f Faculty o f Pharmacy knows about "E codes" more than College o f Foreign Languages and this difference was sta tistica lly significant ( 2=9.6, p=0.02). Interventions fo r increasing packaged fo o d consumption and knowledge about fo o d a d d itiv e s sh o u ld be c a r r ie d on. Advertisements encouraging consumption o f instants soup, ready-mix juice, seasoning and meatbullions should be supervised regarding cumulative effects o f food additives.