• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.131-143
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• 2005

This study is performed to examine the meal management attitudes of housewives who had elementary schoolchildren in the remote rural areas(RA: n = 318, $37.2{\pm}0.3$ years of age) in comparison to those in their vicinity urban area(UA: n = 349, $36.9{\pm}0.2$ years of age) in the Chungnam province in Korea. The subjects were asked to fill out the questionnaire on their attitudes of meal management for their families. The results obtained in this study were as followings: (1) Most husbands of the subjects had a farming job in the RA while they had salaried workers in the UA(p<0.001). Education levels of both subjects and their husbands were lower in the RA than in the UA. Nuclear families were dominated by both groups, however single parent-family and step parent-family were more prevalent in the RA than in the UA. (2) in terms of ways of getting foods such as grains, meats, eggs, vegetables and fruits, the RA housewives relied more often on self-production than did the UA housewives(p<0.001). (3) The frequency of purchasing unprocessed foods was lower in the RA than in the UA(p<0.001). The RA housewives purchased the convenient foods such as instant noodles(p<0.05), ready to eatsoups(p<0.001), retort pouch foods(p<0.05) and instant teas(p<0.05) more frequently than did the UA housewives, while tuna, canned in oil(p<0.01), milk and their products(p<0.001), soybean products(p<0.001) and snacks(p<0.01) were purchased less often by the RA housewives. (4) Family members except housewives engaged more often in meal preparation in the RA than did those in the UA(p<0.001), which was more strongly observed for dinner. The time spent in preparing the dinner was shorter in the RA than in the UA(p<0.001). (5) The degrees of endeavor to provide the subjects' offspring with balanced meal(p<0.001) and nutrition education(p<0.01) were lower in the RA than in the UA. The RA housewives had more difficulty for performing meal management because of 'over work-related fatigue', 'insufficient money to purchase foods' and 'far distance from grocery' than the UA housewives(p<0.001). The RA housewives had lower score on nutritional knowledge(p<0.001) and wanted more strongly nutritional knowledge to improve the quality of family's meal than did the UA housewives(p<0.01). Therefore, the RA housewives had various problems regarding meal management such as 'over work related to fatigue', 'food-purchasing inconvenience', 'low economic status of family' and 'lack of nutritional knowledge'. As a consequence the RA housewives relied on cheap convenient foods more often in order to prepare the meal easily than did the UA housewives. These findings emphasize the need in the RA for nutrition education for housewives and a range of nutrition policies that focus upon the social and economic determinants of food choice within families to improve the nutritional status of the RA residents.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.395-402
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• 2020

In recent years, the home meal replacement (HMR) market has expanded and the consumption of ready-to-heat (RTH) rice has significantly increased. In this study, RTH rice products containing seaweed were prepared with different types of grain: white rice, a mixture of white rice and barley, barley, and mixed grains. The control was a commercial RTH white rice without seaweed. The proximate components, total dietary fiber, in vitro starch digestibility, and antioxidant activity were compared. The ash content of the RTH seaweed rice was higher than that of the control (P<0.05). The total dietary fiber of the RTH seaweed rice was in the range of 1.03-6.57%, which directly impacted the in vitro starch digestibility. The in vitro antioxidant activity including total phenolic content, reducing power, DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl) and ABTS⁺ (2,2'-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) radical scavenging activity of the seaweed rice with barley and the white rice/barley mixture was greater than that of the other rice products (P<0.05). These results indicate that the in vitro digestibility and antioxidant activity of the HMR RTH seaweed rice were greater than those of the control. In addition, when the RTH seaweed rice was prepared with barley, the functional activity improved.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.387-396
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the types of nutrition labeling on the processing fluency, health evaluation and purchase intentions of home meal replacements. Methods: This online experimental study was conducted from December 29 to 31, 2019 and included 134 participants. The research design was 2 (Objective nutrition labeling: present vs. absent) × 2 (Evaluative nutrition labeling: present vs. absent) and each participant was randomly assigned to one of four groups. As stimuli, five types of ready-to-heat foods sold in the market were used. Results: Processing fluency (4.91 points) and purchase intention (4.13 points) were significantly high when both evaluative nutrition labeling and objective nutrition labeling were presented, and healthfulness evaluation (4.47 points) was significantly high when only evaluative nutrition labeling was presented. All three variables were measured to be high when evaluative nutrition labeling was presented. The evaluative nutrition labeling that visually represented nutritional values was found to be more effective for processing fluency, healthfulness evaluation, and purchase intention than the objective nutrition labeling representing the nutritional value of the product in numbers and proportions. Conclusions: These results show that it is necessary to develop various types of evaluative nutrition labeling to enable consumers to choose and purchase healthful home meal replacements. Also, consumer education and public campaigns are needed to encourage consumers to select healthier home-cooked meals using nutrition labeling.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.246-260
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• 2018

This study examined the customers' perception on Home Meal Replacement (HMR) products. Specifically, there were three research objectives: 1. to identify the customers' HMR purchase patterns and preference of HMR product development; 2. to identify the attributes of the HMR products that the customers perceive; and 3. to examine the customers' level of expectation-confirmation toward HMR product attributes according to the demographic characteristics. This study employed a self-administered survey that was distributed online from November 21~24, 2017. The sample of the study was the customers who had purchased HMR products in the six months prior to taking the survey. A total of 553 respondents completed the survey, which was used for data analysis. The results revealed the customers' HMR purchase patterns. The major HMR product type of purchase was ready to heat (52.6%), while the main reason for purchasing HMR products was convenience (83.2%). For the differences in the level of expectation-confirmation toward HMR products in accordance with the demographic characteristics of customers, the results indicated that there was a difference in the expectation-confirmation level according to age, whereas the respondents aged 29 and under showed a significantly higher level of time-saving for the preparation and ease of cooking (P<0.05) than the other age groups. In addition, there was a significant difference in the expectation-confirmation level for saving meal preparation time (P<0.05) and convenience (P<0.01) among the customer's occupation. These findings can provide the basis for a strategy for developing HMR products reflecting the rapidly changing customers' needs. HMR products should be developed according to the specific target market, as the study indicated that the respective customer segmentation resulted in a difference in their expectation toward HMR products.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.25-38
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• 2021

Purpose: This study is aiming at providing researchers and practitioners with new insights to analyse how retailers have made a contribution to the growth of HMR market in Japan and UK. Research design: The second section will look at the definition of HMR, and then, introduce each county's case, while analysing how retailers have developed the HMR market and illustrating some implications. Finally, the authors will draw a conclusion. Results: Retailers have established the retailer brand development department with the sophisticated retail information system which has made a considerable contribution to the growth of the HMR market. Also, it enables retailers to accumulate retail knowledge associated with ready-to-eat meals and train top-level experts, whilst helping them to build the trustworthy supply chain relationships by sharing the POS data with food manufacturers. Consequently, the cooperation with food manufacturers has enhanced in the HMR market in both Japan and UK, on the basis of sophisticated delivery system as well as the concept of innovation into the HMR sector. Conclusions: Retailers have to benchmark Japanese and British retailers' Knowledge to grow ready meal market in Korea and invest their marketing resources in developing various HMR foods, on the basis of innovative thinking.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.763-770
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• 2008

A taste-testing method that accurately measures consumer-acceptance is critical during the course of the product development stage. Although various types of consumer-acceptance tests are available, the testing protocol appropriate for measuring the acceptance of ready-to-eat-meals (REM) has not yet been verified. In this study, various hedonic taste-testing methods (9-point hedonic scaling, best-worst scaling, open ended response) were compared for their efficiency and power in identifying the preferred REM menu of consumers. Forty-four consumers evaluated the acceptance of five types of REM menu samples consisting of a wide variety of flavors. Consumers initially used the 9-point hedonic rating method to choose the best and the worst sample among the 5 meals tested. Finally, consumers were asked to fill out open-ended comments where they could freely describe their liking and disliking of each sample. The results showed that the REM menu acceptance measured by the 9-point hedonic method that rated best-worst scaling exhibited a similar preference pattern. The open-ended response method could not provide a quantifiable acceptance data but was able to provide supplementary information regarding the limitations of the samples and therefore, provide a general idea of the direction of improvement during the product development.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.85-97
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• 2011

This study focuses on the influence of the selective characteristics related to the RTEC product (the food product which can be instantly cooked) among the HMR products on customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. Also, it emphasizes the influence of customer satisfaction related to the RTEC product on repurchase intention. For this study, over age 20 living in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, Jeonju and Jeollabuk-do, the female customers who had experienced the RTEC product were surveyed, and total 219 valid copies of questionnaire were used for the final analysis. As a result of the analysis, it was found that such factors as values, usefulness, preferred menu items, convenience and food quality influenced customer satisfaction considerably. In particular, values, usefulness and food quality were found to influence repurchase intention considerably. Moreover, customer satisfaction significantly influenced repurchase intention.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.81-90
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• 2012

This study is to research the use and the demand of the elderly generation that pursue economic ability and active lifestyle. The composition of the meals were "homemade meals" 65.3%, "homemade & convenience meals" 26.7% overall. For the "never miss a meal" category, 70-74 years old was 48.3%, over 80 years old was 60.0%. The elderly under 70 years old showed a high frequency in the use of alternative meals (p < 0.05) and the elderly with higher education used the alternative meals more frequently (p < 0.01). The rice-cakes, bread, tuna cans, Korean side-dishes, beverages, meat, cup-noodles and seafood as alternative meals are in the order of most frequency. Also, 96.0%, 59.0% and 46.5% of the elderly had experience in using "Ready to eat (RTE)", "Ready to heat (RTH)" and "Ready to cook (RTC)". The oldest group surveyed, the elderly at the age of 80 years old and above showed lower preference for "completely cooked state" but showed highest results in the "half-cooked state". This shows the difference between people's perception and the behavior that showed high frequency of 96.0% in the experience with "RTE". This can be inferred that the elderly needs the development of convenience food that is moderately packaged according to the newer lifestyle where the elderly live independent from their children. Moreover, there is a higher demand in the healthy convenience food, which means that there is a need for development in the quality of the convenience food that will allow more faith in convenience food by the elderly.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.43-57
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• 2007

This study was designed to identify the actual state of ready-to-eat street-foods usage in a college-town in northern part of seoul. For the empirical study, data was collected from customers who had eaten street-foods and a survey was conducted from 16 to 30, May 2006. The results showed that many respondents had irregular eating habits. More than 60% of them responded they usually skipped breakfast and the reason was no time. It was shown that they have had Frequent snacks and unbalanced diet. The results of survey are as follows ; 1. The major time for street-foods usage: p.m 3-5 (28.77%). 2. The frequency of street-foods usage: 1-2 times/week (43.85%). 3. The street-foods usage days of the week: weekday (52.79%). 4. The mean cost for the onetime purchase of street-foods usage: 1000-3000won (71.79%). 5. The monthly cost for the purchase of street-foods usage: below 50000won (81.84%). 6. The reason for street-foods usage: mainly convenience (60.61%). 7. The reason for minding street-foods : mainly insanitary (40.50)%. 8. Factors considered when choosing street-foods: tastes of the foods (65.08%). Also, it was shown that over 50% of respondents have considered the street-foods as the worth of meal replacement, and taken effective factor on eating habits for influx of new culture. It was indicated that problems of street-foods usage was the unbalanced nutrition for 81.8% of respondents and suggestions for improving the street-foods were sanitary controls for products for 63.4% of respondents.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2015

Home Meal Replacement (HMR) products are ready-to-eat or pre-cooked food products that are consumed at daily home. HMR market has grown rapidly due to societal changes: increases in female social activities, silver population, and one-person households. Consumption channels of HMR can be classified into take-out, delivery, and retail. In Korean HMR market, retail sector is largely growing, but companies are focusing their business on the home delivery sector. Moreover, franchise companies are expanding their areal coverage in the HMR market based on their multi-unit strategy. However, more research on the HMR market is needed as existing studies are limited in conceptualization, classification, and processed food from malls or home-shopping channels. Therefore, we conducted the efficiency analysis on Gukseonsaeng, one of franchises that applied the take-out channel, using DEA method. According to the research on 29 franchisees of Gukseonsaeng, 77.9% of input appeared inefficient for technical efficiency, while 53.3% of input appeared inefficient for scale efficiency. Thus, we found that franchises of Gukseonsaeng are structured in increasing returns to scale (IRS), so enhancing efficiency by expanding scales need to be implemented.