Determination of Food-Based Life Style of Erdek Local People in Terms of Factors Affecting Food Consumption

Abstract

The role of the local people in the marketing of local gastronomic values as a tourist product is considerable. Local people are the ones who can easily convey their health consciousness, perception of trust in food and other food related feelings in presenting gastronomic products to tourists. What the local people do in food; Determining the interaction between food lifestyle, food neophobia, health consciousness, perception of safe food and intent to buy food is an important indicator of why it eats, and this interaction also shapes the purpose of the study. The sample of the study is the local population of the town of Erdek in Balıkesir province. By conducting face-to-face interviews, 385 data sets were obtained with the survey technique. The data were examined through descriptive statistical analysis and the hypotheses created for the interaction mentioned above were tested by Structural Equation Modeling. As a result of the research, it was revealed that the participants included in the sample performed health consciousness and knowledge-based nutrition, their habits uniformized their perceptions of safe food and did not consume food-based consumption.