Practices of food storage among women in Kayseri

Abstract

in our country a number o f foods are processed in home conditions and consumed when they are out o f season. This study was conducted on housewives representing different socioeconomic levels in Kayseri, in order to determine their homemade foods and their practices o f food storage. Among the housewives, six hundred housewives living in the Central parts o f the city and representing different socioeconomic levels were ineluded according to the simple randomized sampling method. The data was obtained with the questionnaire by fa c e to fa c e interview method. O f the housewives participated, the majority o f them who were representing the low and middle socioeconomic level (53.5 and 31.5%, respectively), were graduates o f primary school, and the majority o f them who were representing the high socioeconomic level (43.5%), were graduates o f high school (p<0.05). Among the housewives, the common home made foods for winter were jam (90.0%), pickle (85.5%) and tomato paste (64.3%). The other home made fo o d s fo r winter were vermicelli-macaroni (erişte), canned foods, tarhana, molasses, bread made o f thin sheets o f dough (bazlama), sausages and pastramı (62.8, 38.2, 30.0, 21.2, 2.7, 2.3 and 0.8%, respectively). The majority o f the housewives store tomate paste, yoghurt, milk, molasses andjams (78.0, 38.3, 57.0, 65.5, 88.7% respectively) in glass ware and pickle (54.0%) in plastic ware (p<0.05). The majority o f the housewives representing the low, middle and hıgh socioeconomic levels (21.5, 36.3 and 36.0% respectively) stored vegetables by fr e e z in g frozen, likewise the majority (50.0, 60.4 and 51.1% respectively) stored fruits by making them marmalade and/or jams (p>0.05). As the socioeconomic and educational levels increased, the proper practices o f food storing increased.