Food Safety Awareness and Opinions of the Nursing and Medical Students at Gaziantep University

Abstract

AIM: Food safety is defined as the prevention of any decay or contamination in food substances until they are ready for consumption. Foodborne diseases are a growing public health problem. Our research was conducted as a descriptive study to determine the food awareness and associated opinions of the students at the Faculty of Medicine and the Nursing Department of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Gaziantep University. METHOD: The research was conducted with the students at the Faculty of Medicine and the Nursing Department of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Gaziantep University between 8 March and 26 March 2010 and with 175 students who accepted to participate in the research. Verbal consent was obtained from the students before the initiation of the research. Data were collected by the researchers by face-to-face interview technique and by using a questionnaire of 20 questions which was prepared after a review of literature. Collected data were evaluated by using chi-square and student t-test analysis assessed by SPSS 11.0 program. RESULTS: Approximately 62.9% of the students were between 18-20 years of age. It was determined that 56.0% of the students were interested in food safety, 50.9% did not think that the food they consumed was safe, 41.7% paid attention to brand and nutrition values and whether the food is organic when they do food shopping. All students considered safety as a crucial factor in food consumption (100%), 60.0% paid attention to nutrition values, 58.3% paid attention to the expiry date and 41.8% paid attention to the brand on the package of food substances while shopping. Most of the students responded to the statement “food additives are carcinogen” as “yes” (70.9%); while 66.3% of the students responded as “I have no idea” to the statement “Additives with code E are not harmful to health”, and 55.4% of the students responded as “No” to the statement “all additives are harmful to human health”. It was also determined that 92.6% of the students agreed with the statement “spoiled food and meals should be discarded”. CONCLUSION: It was found that nursing students had a significantly greater interest in food safety