Abstract:

Local foods highlighted by consumers for reasons such as taste, freshness, diversity, fewer environmental impact, supporting the local economy and improving food safety, increase their popularity. This study focuses on the effect of consumers' local food purchase reason on the perception of food safety and the purpose of the "Mersin Tantunisi" specificity, which is considered to be a local food specific to the Mersin province, is to find out whether consumers' purchase reason has an effect on the perception of food safety. For this purpose, the survey technique has been used as a data collection tool from 457 consumers who prefer providing local food services in the period February-March 2017 in Mersin province. As a result of the analysis of the survey data, consumers have achieved "Mersin Tantunisi" as a local food to four dimensions, including external factors, internal factors, ethnosentrism (nationalism) and business possibilities. The priorities of consumers' perception of food safety in relation to what Mersin Tantunisi are determined in the form of cooking and protection, staff health, cleaning and hygiene, personal hygiene and cross-infection. The study found that the cause of consumers' local food purchases affects the perception of food safety at a medium level (r=0,482; p=0,000, p<0,001). It has been shown that only external factors and ethnosentrism subdimensions have been influenced by the consumers’ cause of purchasing Mersin Tantunisi.

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