An Analysis of the Improvement of Food Labelling Standard based on Consumerism

소비자주의(消費者主義)에 입각(立脚)한 식품(食品)의 표시제도(表示制度) 개선(改善)에 관한 연구(硏究)

The Main objective of this study is to find consumer attitude toward the Sanitary Regulation of Foods. In view of consumerism, this result will be used in re-regulating the law. Among the Sanitary Regulation of Foods, this study focuses on the Standard of prepackaged Food Labelling, because it is related both with the advertising from the food manufacturer's point of view and with the perception about the food itself from the consumer's point of view. After reviewing the previous studies and related provisions about the Standard of Prepackaged food Labelling, and compare other sanitary regulation of foods in developed countries (U.S.A. and Japan), basic research framework was derived. The research framework focuses on the user perception about the validity of provisions about the Standard of Prepackaged Food Labelling, and on the existance of exaggeration in food advertising using prepackaged foods. Data were collected through questionaires from the sample covering 374 food customers. The data were analyzed by frequency test and the important findings of this study are as follows. Most food consumers consider such provisions as date of manufacturing, circulation time limit, cautions for food handling, price, and manufacturer as important factors in buying food products. Among these factors, the date of manufacturing and circulation time limit are most critical factors, and must be labelled correctly on the prepackaged food cover. But other provisions which do not affect on consumer's buying decision (e.g. business admission number, self standard number) need not be labelled. From this study, we can conclude that the provisions about the standard of prepackaged Food Labelling currently used must be devided into two parts. One is 'mandatory provisions' which must be obeyed by all food manufacturets, and the other is 'autonomous provisions' which need not be obeyed by all food manufacturers. And mandatory provisions need to be regylated more strongly than now.