Perception of the level of food security in university students of an educational program

Abstract

Objective: to estimate the situation in the students of the degree in Food Science regarding the perception of their level of food security. Material and methods: A fourquestion questionnaire was applied to 132 students covering food safety and stress factors in their diet. Food security indices were constructed, weighted and unweighted, under the cut-off points: very bad=0%, bad=25%, average=50%, good=75% and very good=100%. Results: the total sample presented an unweighted security index of 67.73%, and 66.11% (good food security) in a weighted index giving more weight to concern about their eating habits. The stressor related to lack of resources presented the lowest food security index: 60.49%, It is confirmed with the weighted index showing greater concern about the means they have to feed themselves: 59.88% (regular food security). Conclusions: in the general population there are perceptions of food insecurity mainly due to a nutritional issue, still maintaining the category of good food security. 20.5% of the population perceive considerably greater experiences of food insecurity due to issues that have more to do with access.