Food Quality and Safety Situation in Turkey: Governance and Barriers to Success

Abstract

The institutional environment for food quality and safety in Turkey is rapidly changing in the last decade but there are still some incompetency compared with the EU. High costs of establishing quality systems (QAS), inefficient capacity of institutional frame, unknown consumer attitudes, low level of production techniques and lack of awareness of the producers and consumers are found as some important weaknesses after evaluating the current food quality and safety issues in Turkey with SWOT. Whereas, exponential development of QAS, increase in consumer demands, harmonisation of some legislation with the EU, increase in the research and incentives for quality production, production potential were determined as some of the strong points. When the socio-economic situation of farms, producers¿ knowledge, perception and interest in quality was analysed with Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) it is found that producers did not make any capital accumulation because of the low level of the profits, a handicap for them to expand and make investments to the quality. Moreover, the knowledge of the producers is limited and their quality perception mainly focuses on food safety. As a result, academic studies and research projects needs to be extended and adaptation of the legislation with the EU should be completed accordingly.