• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.89-104
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• 2021

Food delivery service combined with IT technology and HMR (Home Meal Replacement) are rapidly growing due to the COVID-19. Recently, the demand for salads along with HMR has increased among office workers in their 20s and 30s who are interested in health and beauty. Freshcode is a food startup with 6 years of experience that started selling salad products through O2O service. Freshcode applied for a patent for a service that collects orders from nearby areas and delivers them on the same day to a designated delivery address 'FCOSPOT' to save shipping costs. In March 2021, in recognition of the growth potential of the regular delivery service, Freshcode received an investment of 6 billion won in Series A. This study may have practical implications to early-stage startups and scale-up stage startups through a longitudinal case study on the growth of a single company. As for the research method, the lean startup methodology and lean canvas were used in the early stage of startup. In particular, the process of the build-measure and learn feedback-loop, which is the core of lean startup methodology, was applied to each major decision-making step. In the scale-up stage after 5 years, the business model canvas was used to schematize the growth as a food online O2O platform to verify continuous innovation. This case study has three main findings. First, the idea of 'FCOSPOT' was successfully implemented through the Lean Startup methodology. Second, Freshcode demonstrated the scalability of the differentiated business model of shared base delivery O2O. Third, a key factor of success was the digital integrated communication operation strategy that maximizes the experience for the created customers.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.157-163
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• 2022

The demands for Home Meal Replacement (HMR) products are continuously increasing owing to the convenience of instant food and online food delivery. Ready-to-heat (RTH) products have received massive attention in the HMR industry because these products can be easily warmed using a microwave oven. However, the conventional microwave packaging should be opened before microwave heating to prevent bursting or food loss owing to the steam-pressure build-up inside the package. Open packaging might lead to non-uniform food heating and cross-contamination. Therefore, packaging materials that are able to release steam without opening are of interest to the HMR industry. In this study, polylactic acid(PLA)/polyethylene glycol(PEG)/nanoclay composite films were manufactured using an extrusion method as packaging materials with a smart steam-releasing function. The introduction of PEG to the PLA imparted a steam self-releasing feature to the composite films owing to the morphology change of composite films during microwave heating. Further, PEG increased the ductility of PLA, which in turn prevented bursting caused due to the steam-pressure build-up. The uniform dispersion of nanoclay obtained by a twin-screw extrusion led to stronger mechanical properties. Therefore, the smart composite films developed here can be applied as microwave packaging materials with a self-releasing function.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.383-397
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the change in the use of home meal replacement (HMR) and delivered foods and food habits of college students due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: A survey was conducted on 460 male and female college students in Chungcheong province in December 2020. Results: The methods of participation in classes in the 2nd semester of 2020 were 40.2% for '100% non-face-to-face' and 40.4% for 'more than 70.0% of non-face-to-face classes'. 52.8% of the subjects responded that their physical activity had decreased, while 36.1% of the subjects responded that their body weight had increased over the past 6 months. Regarding the use of HMR, 62.7% of the male students and 69.6% of the female students responded with '1-2 times a week or less' before the outbreak of COVID-19. After the outbreak, 57.4% of males and 46.7% of females responded with '3-4 times a week or more' (p < 0.05, p < 0.001). As for the use of delivered food, 58.3% of the females responded with '2-3 times a month or less' before the outbreak, whereas the rate of responding with '1 or more times a week' after the outbreak was 64.6% (p < 0.001). Negative changes in food habits caused by COVID-19 were in the order of irregular meals (56.7%), increased intake of delivered food (42.2%), increased intake of snacks (33.3%), and increased intake of processed foods such as HMR (30.4%). Conclusion: As mentioned above, many college students had non-face-to-face classes due to COVID-19. During this period, they experienced decreased physical activity, weight gain, and undesirable eating habits such as irregular meal time, and increased intake of processed foods, delivery foods, and snacks. Therefore, there is a high need for nutrition education and policy support for the prevention and management of health and nutrition problems of college students, which can be caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.172-176
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• 2020

Recently, it has been reported that the positive emotional responses from previously consumed food could be transferred to the new food, affecting the acceptance of the food. This study was conducted to develop emotional lexicons for evaluating consumers' emotional responses to the food. Focus group interviews were conducted using 15 Koreans and 23 Chinese consumers to elicit emotional terms for Korean food HMR products. Using 23 Chinese participants who did not participate in the previous interview, emotional terms were screened through discussions in an interview setting. An online survey among 50 Koreans and 50 Chinese was carried out to evaluate and verify the valence and arousal potential of the selected terms. Elicited emotional terms in these two countries had similar valence and arousal potentials. However, cross-cultural differences were also found, mostly in arousal potential. Therefore, interpretation should be done carefully when comparing emotional responses between Korean and Chinese subjects.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.258-267
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• 2021

This study attempted an empirical analysis study on the Meal Kit Product, whose interest and demand continued to increase according to the eating out trend in the Untact era. In addition, this study attempted to investigate the relationship between the factors of Home Meal Replacement Meal Kit Product Selection Attributes, Consumers Satisfaction, and Other Recommendation Intention. Convenience sampling was used for consumers with experience in using Meal Kit Products released by food service companies and start-up companies. The investigation period was conducted for about one month from July 01, 2020, and the final 285 copies were used for analysis. The SPSS 21.0 statistical package program was used to verify the hypothesis. As a result of the analysis, the price (β=.241), convenience (β=.317), and diversity (β=.191) of Hypothesis 1 had a significant effect on Consumers Satisfaction. Price (β=.482), convenience (β=.133), and diversity (β=.342) were found to have a significant effect on the intention to recommend others. It was analyzed that Hypothesis 3's Consumers Satisfaction (β=.443) had a significant effect on Other Recommendation Intention. Finally, through this study, we expect to be provided as basic research data related to Meal Kit Product. It is intended to be presented as a theoretical basis for the use of marketing and direction for the development of milk kit products for catering companies and restaurants.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.375-381
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• 2020

This study assessed the contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria, fungi, coliforms, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, and Staphylococcus aureus and qualitative analysis of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogens in six raw materials (beef, bean sprout, Chinese cabbage, king oyster mushroom, Korean cabbage, and sweet pumpkin) of home meal replacement (HMR) Shabu-Shabu meal kit distributed in markets. The total aerobic bacteria, fungi, and coliforms were detected as 3.98-6.50, 2.78-3.52, and 2.02-3.28 log CFU/g, respectively. Especially, beef was highly contaminated with total aerobic bacteria (6.50 log CFU/g) and coliforms (3.28 log CFU/g). Over 5 log CFU/g of total aerobic bacteria were also detected in bean sprout, Chinese cabbage, and sweet pumpkin. Less than < 2 log CFU/g of coliforms were detected in all vegetables. E. coli was not detected in any of the six samples (ND: < 1 log CFU/g). S. aureus was detected as 1.33-1.71 log CFU/g in most samples but it was not detected in beef and Korean cabbage. B. cereus was assessed as 1.15-2.01 log CFU/g in most samples but it was not detected in Korean cabbage. L. monocytogenes was qualitatively detected as 25-50% in most samples except for king oyster mushroom. Salmonella spp. were not qualitatively detected in any of the six samples. The microbial contamination levels determined in the current study may be potentially used as the basic data to execute microbial risk assessments of HMR foods such as Shabu-Shabu meal kit.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.378-386
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• 2015

We investigated the antioxidant, physicochemical, and sensory characteristics of dried type sodium reduced chicken bibimbap using dandelion complex extract powder of AF-343 (DCEP) as a home meal replacement. The DCEP is known to add moisture to the skin and to relieve the symptoms of atopic dermatitis. The sodium content of the standard sample was 1,190 mg per serving. The sodium was significantly reduced by 30%, resulting in 820 mg of sodium for the reduced-sodium group (p<0.05). The ash contents of the standard sample group with the DCEP showed significantly the highest value at 6.01% in all of the samples as affected by the minerals of the DCEP (p<0.05). Sensory characteristics of savory aroma, savory flavor, cooked vegetable flavor and hardness in all the samples did not show significant differences, implying that addition of DCEP and 30% sodium reduction did not have undesirable effects on those sensory attributes. Furthermore, chicken flavor, which was a bit oily in the standard samples tended to decrease slightly, leaving a desirable savory flavor increased in the reduced sodium groups. In acceptance tests, the samples did not show any significant differences, indicating that the DCEP added sodium-reduced samples may be potentially acceptable to consumers. Total flavonoid contents, ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging activity, indicators of biologically active ingredients such as antioxidant, anticancer, and antibacterial activities significantly increased with the amount of DCEP added (p<0.05).

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.161-180
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• 2024

Social and environmental changes, such as the rise of single-person households and advances in the food industry, have led to the replacement of home-cooked meals with home meal replacements products (HMRs). This study compared the nutrient content of a total of 1,680 HMRs and 158 restaurant foods by collecting data on the nutrient content of comparable food types from the Food composition data for restaurant foods published by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) and evaluating the calorie and nutrient content of HMRs based on nutrition labeling through market research from May 2022 to May 2024, focusing on rice, porridge, noodles, soup/stew. The nutritional content and price of the HMRs varied widely, even for similar foods, depending on the detailed food type. Therefore, it is necessary to make an appropriate choice based on nutrition labeling according to the purpose of consumption. The HMRs had a lower calorie and nutrient content due to the smaller serving size when compared with restaurant foods. However, when the same weights were compared, the sugar and sodium content in the rice and soup/stew were higher in the HMRs than in the restaurant foods. In addition, due to the wide variety of HMRs available, many HMRs that can replace restaurant foods are being produced. However, even for the same type of food, the serving sizes of the HMRs and the restaurant foods were widely different, suggesting the need for a study to examine the appropriateness of the serving sizes of HMRs and restaurant foods.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.441-448
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• 2015

Blanching beef for use in home meal replacements (HMR) is an important process that determines the final quality of the beef after the cooking process. Thermal pretreatment also minimizes the change in quality during the main cooking process or storage. In this study, beef samples were washed and sliced, then treated by immersion in boiling water (1-10 min), steaming (1-10 min), or pan-frying in oil (30-240 s). The color after each thermal treatment showed higher L* and b* values and lower a* values compared with the raw beef, except for the pan-frying thermal treatment. The total color difference (∆E) and pH value were significantly increased by panfrying (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in the shear force of the beef samples, except for the sample pan-fried for 210 s. The nutritional content of beef was measured as the moisture, protein, fat, and ash contents, which were 69.96, 16.64, 3.49, and 1.13%, respectively, in raw beef. After thermal treatment, the crude protein and fat contents were increased, whereas the moisture and ash contents decreased. The mineral content, including Na, Mg, Fe, and Ca was highest after pan-frying. The heat treatment decreased microorganisms in all the samples. The total bacteria count in raw beef was 4.5-4.7 Log CFU/g, whereas the bacteria count decreased to 2.2-2.8 Log CFU/g after blanching. Thermophilic bacteria, coliform, mold, and yeast not detected in any thermally treated sample.