A Research on the General Knowledge of Pastry Chefs About Food Colorings and Their Awareness of Reading Labels

Abstract

Food colorings are substances commonly used to increase the desire to eat by making the appearance of the food more attractive. This study aims to determine the general knowledge of pastry chefs about food colorings and their perception of label reading awareness. For this purpose, field research and focus group interviews were used, and content analysis was applied to the research data. With the focus group interview data analysis, we determined the awareness of pastry chefs towards synthetic food colorings under two main headings (understanding the health effects of synthetic food colorings and food labels reading habit) and two sub-headings. We examined the food colorings used in many boutique pastry products, and, as a result, we observed that the food colorings that are common in the sector are synthetic. In addition, food colorings have been proven to cause behavioral disorders such as sleeping problems and hyperactivity in children, and some food coloring brands also state this information on their labels. As a result of our focus interviews with five pastry chefs who use synthetic food coloring directly in their workplaces, we observed that the knowledge on synthetic food coloring causes behavioral disorders in children is not very common among pastry chefs. We also determined that pastry chefs do not consider the health warnings on food coloring labels. In conclusion, the general knowledge of pastry chefs about food colorings and their awareness of label reading is insufficient.