• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.138-150
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• 2007

A survey on meal preference from 287 middle school students was conducted with objective to enhance the quality of the school food service. In case of preference about cookery methods, snacks(15%) and fried food(15%) were ranked the highest while vegetable food showed the lowest. The component ratios of food items were 60.5% of vegetable food and 39.5% of meat food. The most preferred foods were 'Samkeybsal(49%)', 'pizza(41%)', 'spaghetti(33%)', 'pork cullet(31%)', and 'fried chicken (30%)'. In boiled rice, 'fried rice' and 'Bibimbab' were preferred most. The best choice of noodle was spaghetti. The highest ranked soup and stews were 'mandu and soup' and 'Kimchi stew'. Also, 'Galbijjim' and 'Sam-keybsal' showed high preference. In vegetable food, Kimchi was the lowest preference. In 'snacks', the highest preference was 'pizza'. The female students were more in favor of food items than males were except 'grilled foods' and 'steamed foods'. Above all, it is needed to do surveys about food preference periodically and active nutrition education for establishing proper eating habits for middle school students.