• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.1-12
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• 2012

Objectives: Dietary modifications are common treatment strategies for adults with metabolic syndrome, but it is unclear how often these individuals read food labels. The objective of this study was to examine if adults with metabolic syndrome read food labels when buying packaged foods and to determine factors related to label use. Methods: From the database of the Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(KNHANES-V), 1,335 adults with metabolic syndrome and 3,696 those without were selected. Data were analyzed using frequency distributions, $X^2$ test and multiple logistic regression with the SPSS win 18.0 program. Results: Adults with metabolic syndrome read food labels less than individuals without it when they purchase packaged foods(12.5% vs 29.0%). Among those without metabolic syndrome, food label use was significantly higher among participants who were women, younger, educated, and trying to control weight. Conclusions: Strategies to use food label as a diet management tool for metabolic syndrome are needed.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 2017

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of a low-sodium label on acceptability and sensory attributes of a dipping sauce for fried pork cutlets. Two sauce samples, CON (normal sodium level) and LOW-Na (50% sodium level), were evaluated. Consumers (n=77) rated expectations and actual perception of overall liking, purchase intent, and intensities of saltiness, sweetness, sourness, fruit flavor, and degree of flavor balance without and with a carrier (fried pork cutlet) in blind and informed settings. In the informed test, CON labeled as Low-Na (PLACEBO) was additionally tested to examine the placebo effect of information. The low-sodium labeling significantly increased the expected liking and purchase intent, but decreased the expected saltiness. However, the label did not influence actual liking or purchase intent. A significant decrease in actual saltiness was observed only in Low-Na, not in PLACEBO, indicating the label is influential only when actual perception matched the expectation.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.376-385
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to estimate beverage consumption frequency and determine related problems of elementary school students in Chungnam. The survey was conducted with 488 students(boys=230, girls=258) using a questionnaire. The average age of the students was 10.1 years old, thir average height and weight were 145.1 cm and 39.5 kg, respectively and the obesity index was -1.3%. The frequencies for breakfast, lunch and dinner were 5.8 times/week, 6.7 times/week and 6.4 times/week, respectively. Regarding the frequency of snacks, high response rates for 'once/day'(38.3%) and 'none' (30.5%) were observed. Nutrition label on beverages were identified rarely(39.1%), nearly never(19.7%), and never(12.9%). The choice factors in selecting beverage were taste, nutrition, and price. For the type of snack most often consumed, fruit or juice was 25.8%, snack items were 25.2%, bread was 24.8%, dairy products were 7.6%, beverages were 7.0%, noddles were 6.2%, and rice cakes were 3.5%. The kinds of favorite beverages were carbonated drinks(30.3%), functional drinks (24.4%) and milk and yoghurt(23.8%), and main reason for the choice of beverage was "it tastes good". For the point of time that students wanted to drink a beverage, "when I feel thirsty" appeared most often for dairy products and beverages and the next most frequent answer was "after exercise". Therefore it may be necessary to administer systematic nutritional education on perception on nutrition fact label of beverage. And it is thought that plan for proper beverage consumption in elementary school students may be established.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.677-688
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of purchase of processed foods and the awareness about food label among middle school students. This survey was conducted by involving 350 middle school students in Incheon city, Korea from June 17~19, 2015. Middle school students consumed confectioneries, bread, carbonated drinks, and juices and ice creams once or twice a week at the rate of 53.4, 53.0, 40.6, and 36.9%, respectively. The most frequent place, time, and reason to purchase the processed foods were 'convenience store (36.2%)', 'after school (26.8%)', and 'hunger (77.9%)'. The subjects exhibited top priority (57.0%) on the taste at the time of purchasing the processed foods. Interestingly, the girl-students (44.7%) checked the labels of food more than the boy students (34.0%). The reasons for checking the food labels included acquiring significant information about the shelf life (27.0%), price (18.1%), nutrient (19.1%), and food additives (14.1%). Among the food labeling information, the name of the product (55.7%), the date of manufacture (49.3%) and the content (32.6%) were checked mainly by the subjects. In addition, the major reason for not confirming the food labeling was 'the food label was too small or crude (31.9%)'. It is necessary to inform about the processing methods and ingredients of the processed to middle school students so that they can make the correct choice of processed foods. Development of proper education methods on nutrition for middle school students is necessitated for healthy living.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2008

This study was performed to improve of Health Functional Food(HFF) through investigating the label system. The logo on HFF to increase the reliance, understanding and quality warranty for consumers was developed through competition. In order to investigate the consumer's awareness about HFF label system a nationwide survey was conducted in metropolitan areas (6 cities) and middle-sizes cities (6 cities). The subjects was 2000(male 519, female 1481) adults aged 20 over, and information was collected by in-person interviews. The major results were as follows. 63.0% of consumer responded they need certification mark for HFF and trust function information of text/graphic format than text format. 85.3% of consumers chose the long claim including the mechanism because 38% reported that they could confide the information, 36% reported it is easy to understand and 26% reported that they thought it is more effective than short claim. As 58.8% of the total consumers answered that the manufacturers marked the nutrition function claim without the permit of the KFDA, a reliable certification mark developed by this research is expected to contribute in improving the label system of HFF, rising reliability and perception of consumer.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.220-230
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate consumer preferred formats of nutrition labels: the type of nutritional information provided on the labels. A survey was conducted on 222 housewives between the age of 20 and 65 in Daejeon city in 1998, using an interview questionnaire showing illustrated nutritional label formats. Among twelve nutrients and caloric values listed on the nutrition labels, the housewives ranked their interest in the items in the following order of calorie (58.56%), calcium (56.76%), cholesterol (54.05%), protein (39.19%) and vitamin C (36.04%). The majority of the subjects (69.37%) checked labels when they bought milk or dairy products, whereas only 8.11% looked at labels when they bought Ramyon or noodles. Most of the subjects (90.99%) preferred products with labels with nutritional information as compared with products without labels. this was especially so true of the younger individuals and of pc-ople who checked food labels more frequently. The subjects preferred labeling which described the nutrient content per Package (55.41%), sewing size (32.88%) and food weight of 1009 (11.71%) as a standard nit. Generally, they prefer-red a simplified list to a detailed list of the number of nutrients, a figure graph to bar graph in nutrition claim, vertical bar graph to horizontal bar graph showing the nutritional content of foods and a web-type graphic format to a radiation-format when describing the item's percentage of the Korean RDA's nutrient content. The subjects who checked labels frequently especially preferred detailed list, while housewives with job or with unhealthy family members preferred a simplified list and graphic, rather than a numerical display. From this result, it is suggested that providing consumers with more nutrients information in a more easily understood graphic format would encourage the consumers to check nutritional labels. Therefore this should be considered when developing the regulations far nutrition labeling or when educating the Public about nutrition. (Korean J Community Nutrition 8(2) : 220∼230, 2003)

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.209-215
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• 2006

This study had carried out to investigate the usage status of customer, the positive effects and problems, and the most important items of the nutrition labeling at purchasing the food etc. on the current nutrition labeling system in order to establish the customer-centric nutrition labeling system. Survey was carried out by questionnaire method that is targeted on adult female above 20 years old in Seoul and Kyeongnam area from May to June, 2004. For the experience of checking the nutrition label of the processed domestic and imported processed food, 82% and 75.4% of the respondents were replied 'have checked' respectively. For the positive effects due to enforcement of the nutrition labeling system, the respondents agreed highly with 'easy to compare with other products' and 'improve the products quality'. For the problems of the nutrition labeling system, the respondents agreed highly with 'different criteria for each product' and 'incendiary purchasing due to false or exaggerated labeling', and gave the higher scale for the positive effects than the problems relatively. For the necessity of the nutrition labeling system, 96.2% of the respondents were replied 'necessary', and it was indicated a significant difference on age and marital status(p<.01). For the price rising due to enforcement of the nutrition labeling system, 55.2% of respondents agreed, and it was indicated a very significant difference on age and monthly income(p<.001). For the most important nutrition labeling items at purchasing the food, the respondents were replied 'total calorie' on most of the food, and in addition, they checked carefully the lipid, cholesterol, protein, Ca, and Fe.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.839-850
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• 2008

This study describes the demographic and diet-related psychosocial correlates of nutrition label use, and examines the relationship between label use and diet. Self-reported dada from a population-based cross-sectional survey of 2073 Korean women aged 20 to 60 years were collected to identify demographic and health-related characteristics, belief on diet-disease relationship, awareness on importance of healthy eating practice and diet quality associated with label use. Label users, who are in the stage of action and maintenance (31.6%), were more likely to have belief on nutrient-disease relationship (in sodium, cholesterol, sugar and trans fat) and were more likely to have higher awareness of the importance of healthy eating practice compared with label nonusers, who are in the stage of precontemplation, contemplation and preparation. Label users were more likely to have higher dietary quality compared with label nonusers [odds ratio (OR) = 2.01; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.66, 2.44](P < 0.001). Also, label use appeared to be associated with the consumption of diets that were higher vegetables and fruits, and lower in cholesterol. The findings of this study suggests that reading nutrition labels on food packages may improve food choices and enable healthful dietary practices.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.160-167
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• 1998

Current status of nutrient fortification in processed food in Korea were presented by analyzing the information shown on food labels. The obtained information was assessed by the regulations on food fortification in both Korea and other countries including Codex. The most current regulations were gathered from internet. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Major nutrients fortified were calcium, Vit C, Vit B complex, iron and fiber. The forfified foods were not limitted to certain food group with more frequent fortification in snackfoods, cereal, ramyun, retort pouch foods, milk, and youguart. The descriptive terms of nutrition label for the fortification were various including high, supplemented, added, source, fortified, and abundance though the difference among these terms were not distinct. 2. Current regulation on nutrition label requires to give the content of the fortified nutrient and % RDA. However not all of food items carry above information. Also some ingredients such as chitosan, DHA, taurine, $\omega$-3 fatty acid, chondrichin, bifidus were supplemented mainly to the snack foods which FDA(USA) does not allow to be fortified. 3. The nutrient most frequently fortified was calcium and general practice of fortification appears to follow the regulation in Korea. Presently the regulation itself is not well described, this nutient fortification can cause toxic effect. Since calcium was supplemented to wide range of food group consumers who are not conscious of the safe upper limit may intake the fortified food up to the level of 2g/day. 4. For the effective fortification in Korea, the regulation on fortification should be reformed in accordance with the international guideline Codex and the regulations in other countries especially in America and Japan.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.413-426
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• 2017

The study subjects were 302 adult males and females aged more than 20 years living in the metropolitan area of South Korea. This study was conducted to obtain baseline data to establish proper development and marketing strategies by examining the effects of food-related lifestyles on the importance of diet, purchasing behavior towards diet lunch boxes, and their selected attributes such as menu, packaging, and services. With respect to food-related lifestyle, a cluster analysis was performed by using five factors such as convenience factor, health factor, safety factor, taste factor, and economy factor obtained from factor analysis to derive the economy type, the taste and economy type, the convenience type, the safety type, and the health type. As a result, the respondents regarded 'food hygiene (4.59)', 'freshness (4.47)', 'taste (4.28)', and 'nutrient balance (4.19)' as the selected attributes of diet lunch box menus. Moreover, the importance of diet lunch box menus (${\beta}=0.179$) was increased with increasing safety orientation. 'Shelf life label (4.42)' was the most important selected attribute of diet lunch boxes, followed by 'ingredient label (4.19)', 'nutrition facts label (4.16)', and 'indication of origin (4.15)'. In particular, the importance of packaging for diet lunch boxes (${\beta}=0.203$) was increased with increasing safety orientation. With respect to the selected attributes of services in purchasing diet lunch boxes, 'provision of personalized menus (4.07)' was the most important, and the importance of services for diet lunch box (${\beta}=0.160$) was increased with increasing taste and economy orientation. Based on the above results, the respondents gave importance to the selected attributes related to food safety and health such as hygiene and, freshness. In addition, they also placed emphasis on hygiene and safe factors such as shelf life, ingredients, and nutrition facts labels. Therefore, it is considered necessary to develop diet lunch boxes by taking these factors into account. Furthermore, in services for diet lunch boxes, it is considered necessary to establish a service system capable of providing consumers with specialized menu or nutrition counseling according to the food-related lifestyle for their proper health management. Particularly, because consumers place emphasis on both food hygiene and safety, and health, it is considered necessary to thoroughly manage hygiene, safety, and nutrition in menu or packaging so that it is possible to enhance customer satisfaction by considering these selected attributes in greater detail.