Aditivos alimentares: estudo com futuros engenheiros de alimentos e nutricionistas

Abstract

The multifunctionality of food additives has boosted their attractiveness in the food industry, being essential to ensure high standards of safety, convenience and variety. This research aimed to evaluate the perception of risk, benefit and level of knowledge regarding food additives by future food engineers and nutritionists, in addition to comparing the impact of two educational approaches (problematization and traditional) and defining the most effective one for adequate awareness about the use of food additives by future Food Engineers, valuing the health of consumers and promoting the guarantee of increasingly safe foods. The study was divided into two stages. In the first stage, an online survey was conducted using the Google Forms tool with 452 participants, which evaluated the following aspects: identification of participants, assessment of the degree of healthiness, perception of risk and benefit and trust in the food industry and regulatory agencies regarding food additives. In the second stage, for the educational action study, 3 educational activities were carried out with 17 participants, using the traditional methodology (10 participants) and Paulo Freire's problematization methodology (7 participants), lasting approximately 90 minutes each. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively with the SPSS 20.0 and JASP 18.1.1 software. The results of the online survey demonstrated that academic training in the Food Engineering and Nutrition courses influenced the knowledge about food additives, as well as the perception of risk and trust in the food industry and regulatory agencies. Specifically, Food Engineering students, who have training more focused on the food industry, presented lower perception of risk and greater perception of benefit and trust in the food industry and regulatory agencies regarding food additives when compared to nutrition students. In addition, moderate knowledge regarding the healthiness and origin of food additives was observed, and it was found that the different periods of the Nutrition course, in general, did not influence the perception of risks of these additives. However, for Food Engineering students, a significant effect (p<0.05) was observed for all parameters related to risk perception among students at the beginning and end of the course. The results revealed a positive impact of educational actions on participants' awareness and knowledge about food additives. Although both methodologies demonstrated similar effects in several parameters evaluated, the problematization approach stood out by promoting greater awareness and critical thinking regarding food additives. Thus, this approach proved to be more efficient in the training of future Food Engineers. Consequently, this study contributes to the understanding of the perception of food additives among future professionals linked to food safety and security, and may support possible changes in the curriculum aimed at improving academic training and ensuring the qualification of professionals to be trained.