Measuring Halal awareness at Bingol City

Abstract

Dirty bread factories, the use of halal logo on food produced from unslaughtered chicken and other animals and having pig's DNA in food products as additives are major increasing concerns with rising mobility and awareness in Bingöl city East of Turkey. Religious beliefs influence the purchasers' behaviors and pigs, alcohol and foods dangerous for human body accepted as Najis (ritually unclean) are forbidden in Muslim religion. Hence, a survey with 500 respondents were carried out at Bingöl city at second quarter of 2016 to learn the awareness of inhabitants and compare its results with past studies done in Erbil city/Iraq Kurdistan and Yozgat/Turkey. Bingöl city people are known with their more conservative Islamic living styles in Turkey. Descriptive statistics like means, reliability analysis, factor analysis, one way One-Way ANOVA and correlation models are used to analyze data. Results have some familiarities and differences with Yozgat and Erbil cities results. The results can be used for further studies and commercial firms selling halal products at city. Taste, quality & organic group with 3.75 mean has the highest mean and other critical means come from certification and packaging groups. Moreover, Halal food label on packaging and certifications groups have positive correlation on buying behaviors of costumers. Low level awareness at city can be increased with seminars and classes as since just about 50% of them eat halal foods always. More controls over foods at local markets and groceries can be carried out to increase trust level of costumers as they do not wholly trust products at markets. Hence, they prefer to consume more locally produced organic foods if they can find with suitable prices.