Food Safety Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Consumers Regarding Meat Consumption at Home

Abstract

This study is conducted to determine the meat purchase, storage, handling or preparation, and personal hygiene practices of consumers living in Istanbul and their level of knowledge on food safety practices. A questionnaire was sent to 830 consumers, who were responsible for primary shopping and cooking in their households. Participants achieved a certain score with their responses to the statements in the questionnaire. The difference between the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants and their scores was determined by independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA. A significant difference was observed in participants' knowledge scores about meat purchasing and carrying, storage and preparation practices and gender (p<0.05). In addition, participants' meat purchase and carrying practices information scores were significantly influenced by monthly income while storage and preparation information scores were significantly affected by the age of participants (p<0.05). An insignificant difference between the personal hygiene and socio-demographic parameters was observed (p>0.05). By considering these results, it is recommended to prepare questionnaires and interviews to reveal the status of applications for measuring food safety information of consumers in other regions of Turkey, and planning preventive measures to eliminate risks in future studies. © 2021 by the Author(s).