Situation of Food Safety and Consumer Behavior Toward Salted Fish in Yala Province

Abstract

Consumption of food contaminated with hazardous incur human illness. The aim of research was to examine quality and safety of salted fish sold in 3 markets of Yala municipal in rainy season (October-November), and consumer behavior toward salted fish in Yala province. It was found that the quality of salted fish was good, Total volatile bases (TVB) and Trimethylamine (TMA) values were 23.21-33.36 and 1.75-7.53 mgN/100g, respectively, but aw value was higher than the standard value of TISI 312/2549, while salt content was lower than this standard value. Organophosphate and carbamate pesticides detected by GT-test kit of Department of Medical Sciences were found in 41.18% of salted fish samples, but all of them were in the safety range. All salted fish samples were contaminated with total microorganism at higher amount than the standard value. It represented that the management of quality and safety for production and distribution might be not appropriate. Survey of consumer behavior from 343 persons showed that most consumer preferred to eat spainish mackerel (30%) followed by sardine (19.5%) and horse mackerel along with sepat siam (13.7%). The purchase decision depended on taste and smell of products and most consumer bough uncooked salted fish (82.5%). The number of people who knew and did not know about the safety characteristic of salted fish products were 56.6% and 43.4%, respectively, and most of them knew this information from television (45.54%). In addition, most people noticed the use of pesticide in salted fish by considering the amount of housefly around the product (52.2%). However, 12 percent of consumers cooked the salted fish without washing. Therefore, educating the people about food safety is the work that related agencies need to perform.