Analysis of factors affecting food literacy among Shiraz University Students

Today, achieving food security is far more difficult than in previous decades, despite the growing climate change, the increasing population of the world, and the degradation of nature's environmental capacity to produce food. Food literacy as an emerging concept has been proposed a viable way to achieve food security and is a promising approach to healthy and proper nutrition for society, as it emphasizes the essential aspects of food, including skill, health, and environmental protection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between dimensions and factors affecting food literacy among postgraduate students of Shiraz University. According to the research findings, the total means of students studied was at a desirable level in terms of food literacy, but in terms of factors such as nutrition style and environmental literacy at a low level and in terms of environmental concerns at very low level. The study found that there was no difference between students in terms of food literacy and different levels of household income and major. But married students had higher levels of food literacy than single students. The results of the causal relationship test in the form of path analysis test showed that among the variables included in the path analysis, environmental literacy (0.43) and environmental concern (0.29) were the most influential in terms of food literacy and the use of media and information resources (-0.06) showed the least impacts. Based on the results, some recommendation have been made to improve food literacy.