Abstract
A sruvey was conducted to investigate the consumer perception of farm products and processed foods, and to figure out the future direction of food supply system to satisfy the consumer need. From the citizens in Taegu area, 532 housewives were selected as sample subjects by stratified random sam-pling procedure. The main criteria of consumers for purchasing farm products was quality and the main reason for purchasing imported products was cheap price(48.9%). Most of consumers(87%) thought that food safety of farm products was not belong to safe level. Consumers(79.7%) perceived that the labeling system for the place of origin and for the quality are necessary, but they did not have confidence in the current label. Nearly all the subjects(93.6%) were concerned about the hazardness of residual chemicals of imported products, desired the rigorous inspection system for imported products. Consumers in Taegu area had confidence in processed foods in the following order; farmerbrand-product(0.9%), government-authorized farm product(30.0%) and agricultural cooperative association product(26.4%). However, only 73.6% of the consumers had the experience to purchase farmers' processed foods. As a conclusion, it appeared that nutrition education for consumers on food-decision making is strongly required for the substantial segment of population who are still ignorant of safety of imported product and food distribution system.
