Consumers’ Awareness of Chemically Treated Fruits: A Study on Consumers of Dhaka City

Abstract

Use of chemical in food and food adulteration has always been a long standing issue of consumer in both developed and developing countries. Many different government bodies in segregated geographical regions instated laws and regulations in order to protect consumers from harmful effects of consuming toxic foods. The citizens of Bangladesh however are still in danger of consuming foods which are chemically treated with hazardous materials (such as calcium carbide, sodium cyclamate, cyanide and formalin, etc.). Many different national newspapers are constantly reporting the use of malicious substances fruits, vegetables, fish, foods and foods stuffs.  This paper illustrates consumers’ awareness of adulterated food items through a questionnaire of 252 respondents at Dhaka. The collected data was coded using SPSS Version 17 and analysed for frequency distribution, cross tabulation and correlation analysis. Regression analysis was further used to analyze associate relationship between dependent variable and the independent variable. The results showed strong relationship between the dependable variable (awareness level) and the independent variables; i.e. sources of information (r=0.897, p<.01), awareness of chemical booths (r=0.827, p<.01) and awareness of Laws (r=0.698, p<.01).