Gelecekte sağlıklı toplumların inşaası için doğru beslenmenin önemi aşikardır. Bu çalışmada özellikle paketli gıdaların günümüz gıda tüketimi içerisinde önemli bir yere sahip olduğu gerçeğinden hareketle, geleceğin yetişkinleri olacak gençlerin gıda etiketi okuryazarlığını ölçmek amaçlanmıştır. “Türk Gıda Kodeksi Gıda Etiketleme ve Tüketicileri Bilgilendirme Yönetmeliği”, gıda hakkında bilgilendirme açısından tüketicilerin üst düzeyde korunmasına ilişkin kuralları belirlemektedir. Gıda okuryazarlığını tespit etmek amacıyla, yönetmeliğe göre Türkiye’de satılan paketli gıdalarda belirtilmesi gereken zorunlu bilgiler kullanılarak doğru / yanlış şeklinde sorular içeren soru formu oluşturulmuştur. Gıda etiketi okuryazarlık seviyelerinin tespiti için 15-29 yaş aralığında yer alan 348 genç tüketiciden elde edilen cevaplar kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen cevaplara göre genç tüketicilerin en çok katkı maddelerine (%60,6) önem verdikleri fakat bu konudaki gıda okuryazarlık seviyelerinin düşük olduğu (%32,2) ortaya çıkmıştır. Vitaminler (%64,4), trans yağlar (%77,9)gibi reklamlarda sıklıkla vurgulanan gıda içerikleri hakkında ise okuryazarlık seviyelerinin yüksek olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Geleceğin sağlıklı nesillerinin oluşturulması için gençlerde gıda etiketi okuryazarlığı seviyesinin yükseltilmesi gereklidir. Bu amaçla ilkokuldan başlayarak eğitim sisteminin her kademesinde bu konuda eğitimlerin düzenlenmesinde fayda görülmektedir. İşletmelerin pazarlama faaliyetlerinden olan ürün tanıtımlarında, reklamlarında, ürün ambalajlarında; sağlıklı gıdaya ve beslenmeye dair içeriklere daha fazla yer vermesinde yarar görülmektedir. Böylelikle sağlıklı gıda tüketimine yönelik talep artacak, dolayısıyla da geleceğin sağlıklı toplumları oluşturulabilecektir.

1. LITERATURE It is possible for a country to be economically and socially powerful and wealthy, with individuals in the country being healthy. The most important condition for reaching such a social structure; society has a healthy food consumption and a conscious understanding of nutrition. 1.1. RESEARCH SUBJECT Food literate individuals, food, nutrients, food groups, nutrition, nutritional diseases etc. know the meaning of the terms related to food and nutrition terminology, and interpret the messages in images such as food labels, food plate, food pyramid correctly (Aktaş and Özdoğan, 2016:149). Miller and Cassady (2015) state that individuals with food literacy can choose healthier foods by getting help from food labels. Parmenter and Wardle (1999) state that it is possible to reach more clear and confusing information in getting rid of the complexity of food literacy and dieting. Drichoutis, Lazaridis and Nayga (2006) state that consumers receive support from the food label to avoid negative foods in packaged food products, thus affecting their buying behavior. Ronto, Ball, Pendergast and Harris (2016) found that in their studies, young people attach importance to food safety and hygiene, and if they have the right information, it will be easier for them to make a healthy food choice. 1.2. RESEARCH PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE The importance of proper nutrition is obvious for building healthy communities in the future. The aim of this study is to measure the food label literacy of young people who will become adults of the future, especially in light of the fact that packaged foods have an important place in today's food consumption. 1.3. CONTRIBUTION of the ARTICLE to the LITERATURE 2. According to the Turkish Food Codex Food Labeling and Consumer Information Regulation, the information contained in packaged food labels will contribute to creating a healthy food purchase choice by understanding and interpreting them correctly. It is thought that the study carried out to draw attention to the level of food literacy will be useful in developing a functional scale in this area. The lack of a functional question form developed on the measurement of “food and nutrition literacy” in both the International and national literature makes the question form sought in this study more meaningful and useful, as well as it is thought that it will be useful to reach a healthier society by opening the subject to academic debate. DESIGN AND METHOD In this study, a questionnaire was prepared to determine the level of food label literacy based on the Turkish Food Codex Food Labeling and Consumer Information Regulation. 2.1. RESEARCH TYPE This research is a descriptive study for its purpose. Based on the data obtained with the questionnaire; it is aimed to understand the food literacy levels of young participants and to obtain descriptive data that can shed light on other “food literacy” studies in this field. 2.2. DATA COLLECTION METHOD In the Turkish Food Codex Food Labeling and Consumer Information Regulation, the provisions that should be included in the food product labels are taken into consideration. Young consumers' understanding of nutritional values on food product labels; it was tried to be determined with the help of 348 data collected between the dates of 01.05.2019 - 30.05.2019 over a sample determined through easy sampling throughout Muğla province. Since the data used in the study was collected before 01.01.2020, an ethics committee permit document is not required. The participants of the study were selected from individuals aged between 15-29. The questionnaire used consists of 2 parts. In the first part, questions were asked to measure the demographic characteristics of the participants. In the second part, there are questions created to determine the comprehensibility of the food information that should be written on the packaged food products within the scope of the Turkish Food Codex Food Labeling and Consumers Information Regulation. 2.3. QUANTITATIVE / QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS “Food and nutrition literacy” levels of consumers were tried to be understood in order to provide correct/incorrect answers about certain information provided to them with the help of an expert on food and nutrition. 3. FINDINGS AN