A Survey on Singapore University Students' Perceptions of Korean Commercial Kimchi

상업적 김치에 대한 싱가포르 대학생의 인식 조사

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of Korean kimchi in Singapore. A questionnaire was given to male 236(43.0%) and female 313(57.0%) college students residing in Singapore. The results are as follows: 86.9% of the participants answered that kimchi is Korean in origin, and 48.7% had eaten kimchi. Also 75.2% of the males and 65.2% of the females had purchased commercial kimchi at restaurants(p<0.05). Regarding the primary reason they purchased commercial kimchi, 62.1% responded 'its taste'(male 58.1%, female 65.0%), also 47.6% stated the package size was 50g(male 44.8%, female 49.7%). Among the kimchi they had experienced, 86.7% had eaten Baechu kimchi, 31.0% Mu kimchi and 30.9% Oi kimchi(males : 82.2% Baechu kimchi, 30.9% Oi kimchi, and 27.4% Mu kimchi, females: 90.0% Baechu kimchi, 33.6% Mu kimchi, and 26.2% Oi kimchi respectively). For their kimchi preference, 67.0% preferred Baechu kimchi, 9.4% Oi kimchi, and 7.1% Mu kimchi(males: 63.4% Baechu kimchi, 12.9% Oi kimchi and 5.4% Mu kimchi, females: 69.5% Baechu kimchi, 8.4% Oi kimchi and 6.9% Mu kimchi, respectively). After having eaten kimchi, 19.3% answer it tasted good, and the primary reason for liking kimchi, 'spicy and hot taste'(51.3%), The main reasons for not liking kimchi were the odor(garlic, ginger, anchovy juice, etc) and too spicy, respectively. Regarding improvements for its expanded consumption 32.0% answered 'not to improve', 18.0% answered 'don't make it too hot', 17.6% answered 'don't make it too salty', and 9.4% answered 'don't make it over-ripe'. For the overall perception of kimchi, the answer with the highest mean(3.95) was 'kimchi is a good side dish with cooked rice', which was significantly different than 'kimchi is delicious'(M=3.14, p<0.05).