Abstract
"Introduction: The increasing use of preservatives and flavouring agents has the potential to cause health problem among the people. There are no published studies from India exploring the awareness, safety perception, & practices aboutFood Preserva-tives (FPs)and Flavouring Agents (FAs).So this study was conducted with the objectives of assessing the awareness, safety perceptions &practices; about Food Preservatives (FPs),FlavouringAgents (FAs) in commonly bought / purchased packedfood items.
Materials & method: This cross-sectional study was conducted in January 2012. Sample size of 126 was computed using the formula for infinite population. People who bought packed food items in malls were approached and requested to fill a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire explored awareness, safety perception& practices of FPs& FAs. Data was then analyzed using SPSS version 10.0. Chi-square test was used to know if the observed differences were statistically significant. ‘p’ value

Key words: Food Preservatives, Flavouring Agents, Knowledge & Practices