• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.562-576
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• 2012

Han-sik is a term in Korean that may indicate any Korean dish or food. At present, there is no general consensus on the definition of Han-sik among scholars or professionals in related fields. The aim of this study was to investigate perceptions of Han-sik by professionals in the fields of food, nutrition, and culinary arts using 512 dishes and foods commonly consumed by Koreans using the 4th Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey. A total of 117 professionals out of 185 initially contacted professionals participated in this online survey. We calculated the rate of respondents with a positive answer, that is "It is Han-sik', on each dish and food from the 512 items in 28 dish groups. Items were categorized into five groups according to their Han-sik perception rate: over 90%, 75-89%, 50-74%, 25-49%, and below 25%. Most items in the three dish groups 'Seasoned vegetables, cooked (Namul Suk-chae)', 'Kimchis', and 'Salt-fermented foods (Jeotgal)' showed high perception rates of Han-sik, with a higher than 90% positive response. Items in 'Soups', 'Stews', and 'Steamed foods' dish groups also showed high perception rates of Han-sik. However, no item showed a greater than 90% Han-sik perception rate in 'Fried foods (Twigim)', 'Meat, poultry and fishes', 'Legumes, nuts, and seeds', 'Milk and milk products', 'Sugars and confectioneries', and 'Soup'. Most items in the 'Milk and milk products', 'Sugars and confectioneries', and 'Soup' groups belonged to the lowest perception rate of below 25%. There was a significant difference in the proportion of items perceived as Han-sik by the length of living abroad to (p < 0.05). In summary, the perception rate of Han-sik seemed to be affected by the cooking method, ingredients, and length of time living abroad by the professionals. Further studies targeting subjects with different characteristics and socioeconomic status are warranted to define the concept of Han-sik.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.371-383
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• 1999

This report gave analysis of food demand both in Korea and Japan through introducing the concept of cohort analysis to the conventional demand model. This research was done to clarify the factors which determine food demand of the household. The traits of the new model for demand analysis are to consider and quantify those effects on food demand not only of economic factors such as expenditure and price but also of non-economic factors such as the age and birth cohort of the householder. The results of the analysis can be summarized as follows: 1) The comparison of the item-wise elasticities of food demand demonstrates that the expenditure elasticity is higher in Korea than in Japan and that the expenditure elasticity is -0.1 for cereal and more than 1 for eating-out in both countries. In respect to price elasticity, the absolute values of all the items except alcohol and cooked food are higher in the Korea than in Japan, and especially the price elasticities of beverages, dairy products and fruit are predominantly higher in Japan. In this way, both expenditure and price elasticities of a large number of items are higher in Korea than in Japan, which may be explained from the fact that the level of expenditure is higher in Japan than in Korea. 2) In both of Korea and Japan, as the householder grows older, the expenditure for each item increases and the composition of expenditure changes in such a way that these moves may be regarded as due to the age effect. However, there are both similarities and differences in the details of such moves between Korea and Japan. Those two countries have this trait in common that the young age groups of the householder spend more on dairy products and middle age groups spend more on cake than other age groups. In the Korea, however, there can be seen a certain trend that higher age groups spend more on a large number of items, reflecting the fact that there are more two-generation families in higher age groups. Japan differs from Korea in that expenditure in Japan is diversified, depending upon the age group. For example, in Japan, middle age groups spend more on cake, cereal, high-caloric food like meat and eating-out while older age groups spend more for Japanese-style food like fish/shellfish and vegetable/seaweed, and cooked food. 3) The effect of the birth cohort effect was also demonstrated. The birth cohort effect was introduced under the supposition that the food circumstances under which the householder was born and brought up would determine the current expenditure. Thus, the following was made clear: older generations in both countries placed more emphasis upon stable food in their composition of food consumption; the share of livestock products, oil/fats and externalized food was higher in the food composition of younger generation; differences in food composition among generations were extremely large in Korea while they were relatively small in Japan; and Westernization and externalization of diet made rapid increases simultaneously with generation changes in Korea while they made any gradual increases in Japan during the same time period. 4) The four major factors which impact the long-term change of food demand of the household are expenditure, price, the age of the householder, and the birth cohort of the householder. Investigations were made as to which factor had the largest impact. As a result, it was found that the price effect was the smallest in both countries, and that the relative importance of the factor-by-factor effects differed among the two countries: in Korea the expenditure effect was greater than the effects of age and birth cohort while in Japan the effects of non-economic factors such as the age and birth cohort of householder were greater than those of economic factors such as expenditures.