Impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on food safety attitude, knowledge, and behavior

Abstract

The potential impact of the virus on food safety during the COVID-19 outbreak has posed a critical challenge to governments, the food industry, and consumers worldwide. The aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of adult people regarding food safety during the COVID-19 outbreak. It is a cross-sectional study which is based on internet survey data of 1049 residents from seven regions of Turkey. The survey includes questions about the level of knowledge and attitude toward food safety during the COVID-19 outbreak. It has been observed that over 90% of the participants have correct knowledge about what to do in food shopping during the COVID-19 process. 56.6% of the participants stated that COVID-19 can be transmitted through food or food packaging, 81.0% stated that food packages should be disinfected in order to be protected from COVID-19 and 37.7% stated that COVID-19 is more resistant than other bacteria or viruses. While the presence of gender (p = 0.748) and chronic disease (p = 0.181) does not affect the number of correct answers to questions about food safety during the COVID-19 process, education (p < 0.001) and age group (p < 0.001) do. Those who are in the COVID-19 risk group and those living with the individual(s) in the COVID-19 risk group (respectively; p = 0.036, p = 0.033). Turkish consumers had a high level of knowledge about food safety, positive attitudes, frequent hand hygiene, cleaning and sanitizing activities, and adherence to social seclusion standards when shopping or dining out.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Food safety
• Consumer attitude
• Outbreak