• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.180-184
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• 2010

This study surveyed the change of housewives' purchase behaviors by food safety incidents; the outbreak of 2008 Melamine incident in Korea as for example. 565 housewives in Gunsan were interviewed in March 2009. 52.3% of respondents were regarded as unsatisfactory for food safety management in Korea. Despite the result of scientific assessment for melamine, 74.6% of respondents were yet regarded as health-threatening substance. By the point of before, during and after Melamine-related food safety incident, we were surveyed the level of purchase for melamine-related food items as five scales, the results were $2.47{\pm}0.97$, $1.80{\pm}0.92$ and $1.62{\pm}0.92$, respectively (p < 0.001). After the incident happened, the purchase level was even more reduced. This study also found that there were significance difference (p < 0.05) among the respondents' knowledge for melamine toxicity and food safety management in Korea concerning housewives' purchase behaviors, i.e. the more accurately for melamine toxicity and higher satisfactory of consciousness of food safety, there were less change of purchase behaviors. In conclusion, the consciousness of food safety and accurate knowledge of hazards were significantly affected for the change of housewives' purchase behaviors by food safety incidents. Therefore, it can be suggested that the need for more scientific risk communication strategies with consumer.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.476-491
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• 2016

Purpose: This study investigated consumers' perception of food safety and risk from foodborne illness and consumption pattern of meat and processed meat products in Korea. Methods: A quantitative survey was performed by trained interviewers, surveying 1,500 adults who were randomly selected from six major provinces in Korea. Results: Most of the respondents reported foodborne illness risk related to the consumption of raw meat but not related to heated meat and processed meat products. As respondents perceived the risk of food poisoning from raw meat, the purchase and intake decreased (p<0.001). Most of the respondents considered a low possibility of foodborne illness at home. Seventy-seven percent of the respondents thought that bacteria and virus are the main causes of foodborne illness. Improper storage practice (40.7%) and unsafe food material (29.3%) were the main risk factors contributing to foodborne illness. Perception and practice of food safety was significantly different by the residency area. The most preferred meat, processed meat, and processed ground meat products were pork (58%), ham (31.1%), and pork cutlet (40.4%), respectively. The most preferred cooking method was roasting, regardless of the type of meat, but the second preference for cooking method was significantly affected by the type of meat (p<0.001): stir-fried pork, beef with seasoning, fried-chicken and boiled duck. Frequency of eating out was 0.75/day on weekdays and 0.78/day on weekends at the mainly Korean BBQ restaurant. Conclusion: The results of this study could be used to develop science-based education materials for consumer and the specific guideline of risk management of meat and processed meat products.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.182-190
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• 2008

A survey on consumer's awareness and perception toward genetically-modified(GM) foods was conducted on 2110 random samples of Korean consumers. More than 65% of the respondents were exposed to some information related to GM foods. The respondents answered that the greatest benefit of the development of GM foods is remedy of potential food shortages in the future. More than 90% of Korean consumers wanted GM foods to be labeled as such. More than 50% of the respondents would not buy until they know more about GM foods. Only 35.8% of Korean consumers were found to know that food items originating from plants contained genes. More consumers responded that they would not buy herbicide-resistant GM soybean but buy vitamin-enriched GM soybean. Many Korean consumers' decision of acceptance or rejection of GM foods depend not on the basis of biotechnology, but on the basis of the degree of benefit to the consumers. Only 6.4% of Korean consumers responded that GM foods were the greatest threat to the safety of Korean foods. The perception of Korean consumers on GM foods has not changed significantly during the past 5 years.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.515-522
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• 2007

To develop the manufacturing method of ice cream with microbiologically safe and proper sensory quality using irradiation for sensitive consumer, 3 different flavors, which were resistant to their flavors against irradiation, were selected and used for ice cream manufacturing to reduce the irradiation-induced off-flavor problem. The general composition was not different among treatments. Total aerobic bacteria were detected as 2.38, 1.23, 1.38, and 1.15 log CFU/g level in ice cream with control(no flavor added), spearmint, mint, and citrus flavor, respectively. No viable cells were observed by irradiation at 1 kGy except for the control. Sensory evaluation indicated that the irradiated ice cream with spearmint flavor at 1 kGy and citrus flavor at 3 kGy had higher overall acceptability. Therefore, a low dose irradiation (less than 3 kGy) with mint or citrus flavors may enhance the safety of ice cream with proper sensory quality for sensitive consumer.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.89-93
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• 2018

High sodium dietary habits may cause various diseases, thereby threatening the public health. Various efforts have been made to control high sodium use in diets, but few studies have been conducted on health communication efforts to modify such habits. This study looks for suggestions for diet improvement education by examining whether or not high sodium dietary habits can be predicted by a consumer's perception on the threat and controllability of high sodium diets. In this study, a questionnaire was developed to measure the severity, vulnerability, efficiency, efficacy, and behavioral tendencies of the consumer, which were subscales of the protective motivation theory. The questionnaire was given to university students and their families in Chungnam Province. The results of a statistical analysis were as follows: First, more young people preferred high-sodium diets than older people. Second, the correlation analysis showed that older people knew that they were vulnerable to the negative effects of high sodium diets, but they would not change their dietary habits until they were confident that they could control the high-sodium diet. Third, the structural model analysis showed that the higher the coping perception was, the lower was the tendency to consume a high-sodium diet. These results suggest that in the effort to reduce high-sodium diets, it is more effective to provide viable information and improve efficacy.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.619-626
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• 2016

Purpose: This study aims to provide important methods to increase egg usage eggs in communal food services, based on the knowledge and awareness of the dietician. Methods: A survey on 200 dieticians in various aspects, such as egg purchase, utility, importance of egg dishes and allergy awareness was conducted. Result: Dieticians' highest consideration in purchasing eggs were cost (41.5%) and food safety certification (41.0%); the 88.6% of purchases were general egg. The most inconvenient issues in the purchase were inability to confirm freshness (42.0%), frequent breakage (23.5%) and inconvenience in shell disposal (18.5%). During the process of cooking, cracking egg shells (49.5%) and disposal of shells (14.0%) were marked as the major inconveniences. When questioned on intention to purchase liquid and powder eggs to overcome the shell disposal inconvenience, 64% answered no, with distrust in food safety (44.5%) being the major concern. The frequency of using eggs as the main ingredient was 1~2 times per week, with 49.0%. Food service customers favored rolled omelet (36.7%) and steamed egg (20.6%), and the most used utensil was the frying pan (56.5%). When important factors in egg dishes, namely diverse menu, taste, nutrition, consumer satisfaction and allergic reaction were surveyed, most answered that all 5 factors were important. Conclusion: For increasing egg dish inclusions in communal food service, the safety assurance, increase in liquid and processed egg use, and supply of cooking utilities are necessary.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.623-635
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• 2013

Purpose: The recent major recalls of hazardous products caused consumer product safety acts to be strengthen worldwide. Although the recall system of hazardous products in Korea has been operating based on Framework Act on Product Safety since 2011, the evaluation of product risk has been relied on not the results of objective incident data but the results of illegal product investigations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a product risk assessment model for Korea using injury data. Methods: The authors derived Korea's risk assessment method by analysing the advantages and disadvantages of the most widely used models in advanced countries such as EU's RAPEX RAG and Janpan's R-MAP. In this study, the level of relative frequency and severity of injury are determined based on the objective incident data and the length of hospitalization respectively. In addition, the injury data occurred during 2011 is applied to the proposed risk assessment model for case study. Results: The data analysed in this paper can be classified as high risk, medium risk, low risk, acceptable risk, and safe products through the matrix f rom the combination of the relative frequency and the severity derived. Conclusion: The proposed risk assessment model in this study has advantage obtaining reliable objective results because it uses actual injury data and redeems the drawbacks of the existing models used in advanced countries. Furthermore, because the proposed model shows the high risk products among many, it is expected to be useful especially for customs whose main job is inspecting the imported goods and the government when selecting the target product groups for safety investigation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.924-937
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• 2015

This study surveyed the recognition and credibility of infant's organic cotton apparel and examined the current quality of children's organic cotton clothes available in the market. This study contributes to improve fabric certification programs and safety standards by understanding customer opinions and actual quality. A customer survey revealed that customers believe that organic cotton products should not include chemicals such as pesticides, fluorescent whitening agents and chemical colors; in addition, customers have high expectations for safety as well as worries about the products' validity. Children's underwear was the most purchased item category among organic cotton products. Current organic cotton certification programs are voluntary with multiple organizations that provide various certification standards. A total of 34.2% of children's organic cotton clothes sold at online and offline stores were not certified, and 10.5% had invalid certification information. This may substantially lower the credibility of organic cotton products and requires immediate change. Examination of organic cotton products showed that products do not meet customer expectations for quality and safety: 3 out of 8 products used accessories (buttons and wappens) that include harmful chemicals such as lead, phthalate and formaldehyde, 6 products used fluorescent whitening agents, and 4 products used other fabrics such as rayon, polyurethane and polyester. GOTS mark is the most recognized organic certification, but it still allows the usage of fluorescent whitening agents, which indicates a gap between customer opinions and actual certification standards. Managing national-level mandatory certification programs like food and setting quality standards that meets customer expectations are required to enhance the credibility of organic cotton products.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2016

After Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Korean government banned to import of Japanese fishery products that comes from north region of Japan. As 'fishery product trade dispute' between Korea and Japan is still in progress, consumers have been threatened their food safety. This study is to examine the factors influencing consumer's risk perception to Japanese fishery products and risk taking behavior. Survey was conducted with 1,500 adult during sep-oct 2012. The result can represent the role of affect with risk perception of Japanese fishery product. People who have negative affect to Japanese fishery products have higher risk perception. Also negative affection can influence to risk taking behavior. However the degree of fatalism is not significant factor to risk taking behavior.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2020

Foodborne diseases (FBD) pose significant public health problems and economic losses worldwide. In recent years, emerging foodborne diseases have resulted mainly from novel bacteria, viruses, protozoa, mycotoxins, prions in animal and plant sources. The consumption of unsafe food contaminated with harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical agents or naturally occurring toxins results in high morbidity and mortality. However, estimating the incidence and burden of FBD is a huge global challenge due to the difficulty in food source attribution to specific pathogenic or chemical hazards, underreported cases, diagnosing how infections are transmitted or when a person is infected are not well understood and thus makes the control of FBD very challenging. Therefore, implementing comprehensive food safety strategies and policies, enhancing surveillance, ensuring resilient health system, and intensifying education and training to ensure safe food and prevent foodborne diseases is everybody's responsibility.