AMBALAJLI ATIŞTIRMALIK GIDALARDA KULLANILAN GIDA KATKI MADDELERİNİN BİLİNİRLİK DÜZEYİ: GİRESUN İLİ ÖRNEĞİ

Today, the rapidly changing and developing food industry has caused individuals to spend a large part of their time outside and technological developments to increase the consumption of ready-made food. This has also led to an increase in the use of food additives. Especially the easy accessibility of snack food products and the fact that consumers do not pay attention to the doses of additives in these products pave the way for various health problems. The main purpose of this research is to determine the frequency of consumption of snack products by individuals in Giresun province and their level of knowledge about the food additives contained in these products. A survey was used as a data collection tool in this research, which aims to measure consumers' awareness levels about additives. The survey forms used consist of two parts.The first part of the survey forms included questions regarding the descriptive characteristics of the participants. The scale in the second part of the data collection tool contains 39 statements and this scale was prepared in a 5-point Likert type. A voluntary sample of 201 participants was used in the study. The findings show that the participants generally have a good level of knowledge about the awareness of food additives. Additionally, it was determined that the education level of the participants had a positive effect on their knowledge of food additives. When participants were asked to evaluate the purposes of use of food additives, it was observed that they stated that the additives served functions such as extending the shelf life and improving the quality of taste and color.