Perception and awareness of the European Union food safety framework

Objectives The aim of the study was to register the response of different social groups of the Turkish public opinion to specific parameters of food safety issues and to compared them with EU citizens. Materials and methods Ten specific questions on the perception of food safety were answered by three groups of subjects. The first group (Turkish Educated Group, TG) was from Turkish academic and administrative staff (242 persons). The Europeans (73 university students and professors) attending an Erasmus Intensive Programme on Food and Feed Safety (IPRASAFF, 2012) was the second group (EG). The third group consisted of randomly selected subjects living all over Turkey (250 persons, Turkish Public Group, TPG). Results The majority of the respondents was aware which authority is responsible for food safety at national level but did not clearly understand how to make food complains (mostly made to food companies instead of public institutions). The concept of food safety and subsequent behaviours were greatly different among socialdemographically different classes at both national and international level. The TPG showed a higher concern (compared to TG and EG) towards the intrinsic safety of the food products and probably to the family safety (i.e., food terror law, ban of unauthorized slaughters, less trust in open-air markets, severe control of wholesalers, publication of the producers implicated in frauds, publication of the results of the public controls). The manufacturer name and price were important for the Turks, the food label for EG. “Food safety” was associated to “quality control” and “healthy life” by the TG and EG groups; however, the TPG understood it as “healthy life” and “food terror”. Individuals with higher education showed a high interest in the food package. Halal certification was highly appreciated by both TG and TPG. Conclusions Since the consumers sometimes give more weights to the negative than the positive information, this proves that the perception is a complex issue mediated by individual and social factors. GMOs are rated as highly unknown risks due to their unknown consequences. In the present study, both Turkish educated and public groups highly rated the GMOs as risky, while the European educated group did not. Thus, the public awareness of Turkish public about recently introduced aspects of food safety related to the EU accession negotiation must be improved.