• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.325-332
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to investigate and analyze food allergy labelling for the arrangement of improvement plans. Survey was done as a quantitative research targeting food industry employees with 399 random workers in Seoul and Gyonggi area. The data was analyzed using SPSS windows (ver. 12.0) for frequency analysis, t-test and factor analysis. The importance and performance of the food allergen labelling were divided by 15 items. Only 43.1% of the workers understood the operation allergic food labels. The first improvement on allergic food labels was "using boldface for food allergen labes". The importance of all of these factors was significantly higher than performance. The selection attributes with relatively low the performance but high importance(2 quadrant) were "consumer education for allergic food labels" and "training of professional counselors on food allergy". Therefore, the factors to be improved through the IPA were consumer education and training of professional counselors. With this research and extended efforts for revision of laws, reliability of food industry and accuracy of food labelling would improve, thereby boosting the productive commercial activities in labelling code.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.517-522
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate food allergens and prevalence rates of food allergies, followed by comparison of consumer attitudes and preferences regarding food allergy labeling by diagnosis of food allergies. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A total of 543 individuals living in Seoul and Gyeonggi area participated in the survey from October 15 to 22 in 2013. RESULTS: The results show that the prevalence of doctor-diagnosed food allergies was 17.5%, whereas 6.4% of respondents self-reported food allergies. The most common allergens of doctor-diagnosed and self-reported food allergy respondents were peaches (30.3%) and eggs (33.3%), respectively, followed by peanuts, cow's milk, and crab. Regarding consumer attitudes toward food labeling, checking food allergens as an item was only significantly different between allergic and non-allergic respondents among all five items (P < 0.001). All respondents reported that all six items (bold font, font color, box frame, warning statement, front label, and addition of potential allergens) were necessary for an improved food allergen labeling system. PLSR analysis determined that the doctor-diagnosed group and checking of food allergens were positively correlated, whereas the non-allergy group was more concerned with checking product brands. CONCLUSIONS: An effective food labeling system is very important for health protection of allergic consumers. Additionally, government agencies must develop policies regarding prevalence of food allergies in Korea. Based on this information, the food industry and government agencies should provide clear and accurate food labeling practices for consumers.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.330-338
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• 2018

The aims of this study were to investigate the perception of confectionery bakers working in Gyeongnam province for food allergy and to find ways to improve and manage food allergy in confectionery and bakery. The questionnaire was composed of general questions and other questions related to food allergy in confectionery and bakery, and the questionnaires were distributed to the bakers working in Gyeongnam. Sixty nine of 102 confectioneries and bakeries responded to this study, and 60 (87.0%) out of 69 people were aware or had heard about food allergy. However, 54 (78.3%) out of 69 lacked prior education about the management of food allergy. Fifty one (73.9) of 69 people responded that they strongly considered food allergy in the manufacture of the products, but they were not educated about the management of food allergens and symptoms of food allergy. Confectionery bakers were aware about food allergies, but did not label food allergen on the products and have a specific management for food allergens at the work site. Therefore, it is necessary to educate the confectionery bakers about food allergy and to develop and distribute a manage program of food allergens in the field. The result from the present study could be used as basic data for the investigation of awareness for food allergy of confectionery bakers working in Korea.