Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the prospective teachers' perception of food risk with the goal of providing the ways to improve their knowledge and perception of food risk. A self-administered questionnaire was developed and offered to 307 freshman and sophomore in an elementary teacher-cultivating university located in Seoul. The collected data were analyzed in terms of frequencies, cross tabulation analysis, t-test and ANONA with a deviation level of 5% using SPSS 15.0. The results of this research were as follows: 'Taste' was identified as an important factor for purchasing food (54.4%), and 'Manufacture date/expiration date' (67.0%) was checked first before food was purchased. The respondants viewed food additives (66.8%) followed by environmental contaminants (17.6%) as the most dangerous factors for food consumption. Even though they did not know the actual level of risk these factors posed to food, they still perceived them as dangerous. Most of them did not have any educational experiences on food risk, and if any, their sources of information were TV (46.6%) and the internet (19.5%). And, they did want to have information on food risk through TV, radio (41.1%) and the internet(16.4%). Based on the above results, the subjects who have great potential to influence children appeared not to have sound knowledge or a balanced perception of food risks. Therefore, systematic educational opportunities for prospective teachers should be provided to promote food risk communication.
