Ishwar Shailesh, Dudeja Puja, Shankar Pooja, Swain Santosh, Mukherji Sandip
Medical Cadet, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune 411040, India.
Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune 411040, India.
Med J Armed Forces India. 2018 Jan;74(1):57-60. doi: 10.1016/j.mjafi.2016.11.007. Epub 2016 Dec 27.
Food adulteration includes various forms of practices, including mixing, substituting, concealing the quality of food, etc. One of the main causes for rampant adulteration is ignorance of consumer regarding their right and responsibilities resulting in faulty buying practices. Hence, the present study was done to assess the knowledge about adulteration among consumers in an urban slum.
A community-based cross-sectional study was done among residents of an urban slum over a period of 2 months. Adults responsible for purchasing groceries for the household were included. A sample size of 100 was taken and pilot-tested questionnaire was administered. All of them were made aware about adulteration.
The mean age of the study subjects was 40.2 ± 11.7 years. Only 7% of the study subjects were illiterate. Good practices like checking of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) logo (90%), Agmark logo (76%) and nutrition label (65%) are lacking among the majority. The most prominent source of knowledge about adulteration is mass media especially television (65%). Almost 40% of the study subjects are unaware about the consumer empowering initiative ''. Factors which had a strong positive relationship with good practices like checking of nutrition label, FSSAI logo, Agmark logo, seal and expiry date are age, education status and socio-economic status ( value ≤ 0.05).
Majority of study subjects are unaware about adulteration. '' initiative which empowers the consumers has to be instilled in the minds of consumers. Awareness and motivation will lead to empowerment and end the menace of food adulteration.
食品掺假包括多种形式的行为，如混合、替代、隐瞒食品质量等。掺假行为猖獗的主要原因之一是消费者对自身权利和责任的无知，导致购买行为不当。因此，本研究旨在评估城市贫民窟消费者对掺假的认知情况。
在城市贫民窟居民中进行了为期2个月的基于社区的横断面研究。纳入负责为家庭购买食品杂货的成年人。抽取了100个样本，并使用经过预测试的问卷进行调查。向所有参与者介绍了掺假相关情况。
研究对象的平均年龄为40.2±11.7岁。只有7%的研究对象是文盲。大多数人缺乏诸如查看印度食品安全与标准管理局（FSSAI）标志（90%）、农业标志（76%）和营养标签（65%）等良好做法。关于掺假的最主要知识来源是大众媒体，尤其是电视（65%）。近40%的研究对象不了解消费者赋权倡议。与查看营养标签、FSSAI标志、农业标志、封口和保质期等良好做法有强正相关的因素是年龄、教育程度和社会经济地位（值≤0.05）。
大多数研究对象不了解掺假情况。必须将赋予消费者权力的倡议灌输到消费者心中。提高意识和给予激励将带来赋权，并终结食品掺假的威胁。
