Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.13103/JFHS.2016.31.3.153

Consumers Perceptions on Monosodium L-glutamate in Social Media  

Lee, Sooyeon (Dept. of Food and Nutrition, Seoul National University)
Lee, Wonsung (Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering, KAIST)
Moon, Il-Chul (Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering, KAIST)
Kwon, Hoonjeong (Dept. of Food and Nutrition, Seoul National University)
Publication Information
Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety / v.31, no.3, 2016 , pp. 153-166 More about this Journal
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate consumers' perceptions on monosodium L-glutamate (MSG) in social media. Data were collected from Naver blogs and Naver web communities (Korean representative portal web-site), and media reports including comment sections on a Yonhap news website (Korean largest news agency). The results from Naver blogs and Naver web communities showed that it was primarily mentioned MSG-use restaurant reviews, 'MSG-no added' products, its safety, and methods of reducing MSG in food. When TV shows on current affairs, newspaper, or TV news reported uses and side effects of MSG, search volume for MSG has increased in both PC and mobile search engines. Search volume has increased especially when TV shows on current affairs reported it. There are more periods with increased search volume for Mobile than PC. Also, it was mainly commented about safety of MSG, criticism of low-quality foods, abuse of MSG, and distrust of government below the news on the Yonhap news site. The label of MSG-no added products in market emphasized "MSG-free" even though it is allocated as an acceptable daily intake (ADI) not-specified by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). When consumers search for MSG (monosodium L-glutamate) or purchase food on market, they might perceive that 'MSG-no added' products are better. Competent authorities, offices of education and local government provide guidelines based on no added MSG principle and these policies might affect consumers' perceptions. TV program or news program could be a powerful and effective consumer communication channel about MSG through Mobile rather than PC. Therefore media including TV should report item on monosodium L-glutamate with responsibility and information based on scientific background for consumers to get reliable information.
Keywords
monosodium L-glutamate (MSG); social media; consumer perception; contents analysis; text mining;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 10  (Citation Analysis)
연도 인용수 순위
1 Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. 2015. Food Sanitation Act (Act No.13277).
2 Han, W.K., Lee, G.J.:A study on the comsumer recognition of food safety and food additives. Korean J. Soc. Food Sci., 7, 23-34 (1991).
3 Han, M.Y., Ahn, M.S.:A study on the purchase action of processed foods and the recognition for food additives of urban housewives. Korean J. Dietary Culture, 13, 119-126 (1998).
4 Choe, J.S., Chun, H.K., Hwang, D.Y., Nam, H.J.:Consumer perceptions of food-Related hazards and correlates of degree of concerns about food. J. Korean Soc. Food Sci. Nutr. 34, 66-74 (2005).   DOI
5 Kim, W.J., Kim, B.H., Park, Y.W.:The purchasing acts for the commercial processed foods and the awareness for the food additives. Journal of Human Ecology, 3, 71-80 (2000).
6 Yoon, Y.Y., Kim, K.J.:A Qualitative study on consumers' perceptions of food safety risk factors. Journal of Korean Home Management Association, 31, 15-31 (2013).
7 Kim, H.H., Kim, J.W.:Development of risk communication materials on artificial sweeteners based on the perception of elementary students on food additives. Journal of Korean Practical Arts Education, 22, 145-160 (2009).
8 Jin, D.I., Kim, J.W.:Prospective elementary teachers' perception on food risk in Seoul. Korean J. Food Cookery Sci., 25, 643-649 (2009).
9 So, Y.J., Kim, S.N., Lee, J.H., Park, E.Y., Kim, H.J., Kim, J.S., Kim, J.W.:A survey on the perceptions of consumer organizations to promote risk communication for food additives. Korean J. Food Cookery Sci., 29, 105-113 (2013).   DOI
10 Hankyoreh21. Press release 'MSG is natural? (2008.10.22.)'. http://h21.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/culture_general/23598.html (accessed Jan 2016).
11 JoongAng Ilbo. Press release 'World searching for good food only (2014.09.17.)'. http://news.joins.com/article/15826784 (accessed Jan 2016).
12 Joint WHO/FAO expert committees on food additives. World Health Organization technical report series 759 (1987).
13 Korea Workingmom Institute. Survey research on cooking difficulties and perception of flavor enhancers. Korea Workingmom Institute, Seongnamsi, Rep. of Korea (2013).
14 Jin, H.J.:Effects of food addtive controversy on the security values of confectionery companies. Korean J of Agricultural Economics, 49, 85-112 (2008).
15 Choi, S.J., Jeon, J.S., Biswas, S., Kwon, O.B.:An efficient estimation of place brand image power based on text mining technology. J Intell Inform Syst., 21, 113-129 (2015).
16 Park, S.H.:Frame analysis on risk reporting- Food safety reports from 1989 to 2005. Korean Journal of Communication & Information, 35, 181-210 (2006).
17 Baeck, B.S., Lee, Y.H.:Consumer's awareness and policies directions on food addtives-focusing on consumer information. Journal of Consumer Studies, 17, 133-150 (2006).
18 Brendan, O., Ramnath, B., Bryan, R.R. and Noah, A.S.:From tweets to polls: linking text sentiment to public opinion time series. International Conference on Web and Social Media, 11, 122-129 (2010).
19 Jeong, D.M., Kim, J.S., Kim, G.N., Heo, J.U., On, B.W., Kang, M.J.:A proposal of a keyword extraction system for detecting social issues. J Intell Inform Syst., 19, 1-23 (2013).
20 Sah, J.Y., Yeo, J.S.:Levels of consumer anxiety and its determinants: focus on genetically-modified foods, food additives, and mad cow disease. Journal of Consumer Studies, 25, 145-172 (2014).
21 Kim, E.J., Na, H.J., Kim, Y.N.:Awareness on food additives and purchase of processed foods containing food additives in middle school students. Korean Journal of Human Ecology, 16, 205-218 (2007).   DOI
22 Kim, K.D., Lee, J.Y.:A Survey on the housewives' purchasing behavior and needs for food safety information. J. Korean Soc. Food Sci. Nutr. 39, 392-398 (2010).   DOI
23 Lee, K.H.:Study on the emprical analysis and the implications for the effective food risk communication. Journal of Consumer Policy studies, 34, 104-133 (2008).
24 Blei, D. M., Andrew Y. N. and Michael I. J.:Latent dirichlet allocation. Journal of machine Learning research 3, 993-1022 (2003).
25 Korea Internet and Security Agency. Type analysis and countermeasures of side effects of social media. National Information Society Agency, Seoul, Rep. of Korea (2011).
26 Park, J.H., Park, E.J., Jo, D.J.:Automated text analysis of north korean new year addresses. Korean Political Science Review, 49, 27-61 (2015).   DOI
27 Bollen, J., Huina M. and Xiaojun Z.:Twitter mood predicts the stock market. Journal of Computational Science, 2, 1-8 (2011).   DOI
28 Moon, I.C., Alice H. O. and Kathleen M. C.:Analyzing social media in escalating crisis situations. In IEEE Intelligence and Security Informatics. Beijing, China (2011).
29 TONK. http://seslab.kaist.ac.kr/xe2/board_jKOY65/2060 (accessed Jan 2016).
30 Naver trend search analysis. http://trend.naver.com (accessed Jan 2016).
31 Yonhap News. Press release 'Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Food Additive MSG is safe enough to eat over a lifetime (2014.4.6)'. http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=001&aid=0006846887 (accessed Jan 2016).
32 Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Quality Certification standard for Children's Preferable Food (Announcement of Ministry of Food and Drug Safety no.2014-196).
33 Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. The basic guideline for school foodservice programs. Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Seoul, Rep. of Korea (2013).
34 Korea Internet and Security Agency. A study on mobile phone using behavior by age and gender group. Korea Internet and Security Agency. Seoul, Rep. of Korea (2013).
35 Food and Beverage News. Press release 'Is the restaurant using MSG bad even though it was proven safe? Incompatibility in food policy between central and local Governments (2013.02.18)'. http://www.thinkfood.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=51891 (accessed Jan 2016).
36 Lee, S.Y., Lee, W.S., Moon, I.C., Kwon, H.J.: Consumers perceptions on sodium saccharin in social media. Journal of food hygiene and safety. 30, 329-342 (2015).   DOI
37 Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. A Study on the internet usage. Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. Gwacheonsi, Rep. of Korea (2014).