Knowledge Level of University Students on Food Additives and their Perceptions Regarding Food Safety

Abstract

We aimed to assess the level of knowledge regarding food additives among medical and engineering students.This cross-sectional descriptive study included students from Inonu University Medicine and Engineering Faculty. The sample size was calculated considering the prevalence rate of food additive knowledge as 22.3%, with a 95% confidence interval, 80% power and 918 individuals. A questionnaire was used to collect the socio-demographic characteristics of the students and their knowledge regarding food additives. Scores for knowledge regarding food additives were created; eight questions were posed to the students, and each known correct answer was given a score of 1. Pearson’s chi-square test, Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis test were used for data analysis.Mean age of the students was 21.74 ± 2.56 years, and 51.7% of them were males. Knowledge level regarding the definition of food additives was not different between genders (p > 0.05). Medical students had significantly higher knowledge levels (92.2%) about the definition of food additives compared to those of engineering students (80.4%) (p < 0.05). More males (52.8%) than females (49.3%) and more medical students (51.6%) than engineering students (50.7%) stated a significantly higher rate of daily consumption of processed foods containing additives (p < 0.05). The median scores of knowledge regarding food additives were not significantly different between gender and faculty (p > 0.05).The present study demonstrated that the rate of the participants who knew the definition of food additives as well as those who perceived food additives to be unsafe were high. Although the knowledge levels on FAs of the students were high in general, it was observed that the frequency of food consumed daily was high This suggests that further research and effective interventions are required to ensure that knowledge turns into behaviour.