Level of Knowledge, Practices and Attitudes of Dairy Farmers Regarding Food Safety in Turkey

Abstract

This study was aimed to reveal the knowledge levels, attitude and mentality regarding food safety of dairy farmers located in the Province of Izmir. 103 surveys were carried out; five counties and 20 villages in these five counties were involved in the surveys. In measuring the knowledge levels and in determining the Current practices of fanners, a Five-Point Likert Scale was applied by setting "one" as "very low" and "five" as "very high". According to the obtained results, the knowledge level of fanners in the studied facilities was assessed to be quite poor. In consideration of the poor knowledge of farmers, the prior short-term objective should be the education of farmers on food safety issues. The extension activities should be started up for the sake of a continuous education and knowledge traffic. The Current farming practices should be inspected by the raw milk buyers; furthermore, as prescribed by law, all stakeholders working in the sector must be systematically inspected by the Ministry of Agriculture. The survey was carried Out on commercial facilities supplying raw material to the dairy industry that were chosen on the basis of their Suitability to the purpose of the study. The paper adds to the body of knowledge on dairy farmers and their attitudes to food safety and suggests the implementation of various practices which could improve results.