Determination of Factors Affecting Fresh Fruit and Vegetable (FFV) Consumption Level during the Covid-19 Pandemic Period: the Case of Turkey

Fresh fruit and vegetable (ffv) is indispensable for human health, as well as being an economically important sub-sector of agriculture. especially with the covid-19 pandemic, the importance given to ffv has increased. the aim of this study was to present the household ffv consumption rate by regions and the factors affecting ffv consumption level. a sample of 720 respondents was selected for online survey from the residents of all cities, in line with the population size of turkey and the survey study was conducted in 2021. ffv consumption rates were calculated by regions and also ordinal logistic regression model was executed to determine affective factors. the study revealed that the highest ffv consumption rates by region were the aegean (34.12%), mediterranean (33.06%) and east marmara (26.84%), while the lowest consumption rates were central east anatolia (18.60%). also, according to result of ordinal logistic regression (olr) model, some explanatory variables such as age, marital status, education level and covid status were found to have a significant effect on consumption level of ffv. the age older, probability of being in high consumption level increases (p< 0.05). besides, married people's probability of being in high consumption level was higher than single ones (p< 0.01). people having university education level were more likely to be in high consumption level compared to those having primary education level (p< 0.05). people having had covid-19 were more likely to be in high consumption level compared to those having not been covid positive (p< 0.01). individuals who were young, single/divorced, having not university education, or tested negative for covid-19 should be encouraged to consume more ffv by governments’ health care departments. in addition to informing about the benefits of ffv consumption, ffv food assistance can be provided to these individuals in cash or in kind.