• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.133-145
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• 2015

Objectives: Food safety has become one of the major public-concerning issues in Korea. In order to set guidelines to create manuals for the response to a food safety crisis by food industry, this paper classified food safety crises and suggested techniques to determine crisis level. Methods: This study clarified common terminologies and definitions including in food safety crises. It reviewed various food safety crises and described characteristics, types, and states of crises. Results: The results of this study suggested that a food safety crisis implied a situation in which hazards/risk spreading in the food supply chain was widely described, causing strong public concern followed by a socioeconomic impact, and therefore, requiring the implementation of a prompt and full response regarding the situation. In terms of seeking response plans, food safety crises might be classified according to the penalties resulting from violations of laws and regulations, causative substances, stages of the food supply chain, and first contact point for incidents. The crisis level for a food safety crisis could be classified according to its severity parameters. The guideline matrix was divided into four major stages: Blue/guarded, Yellow/elevated, Orange/high, and Red/severe. This study also suggested several methods for determining the crisis level, such as the simple judgement method, scoring methods using a check-list and a weighted check-list. Conclusion: The severity of related parameters might be of great importance in understanding a crisis and determining response options/challenges for crisis levels.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.191-202
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• 2015

Objectives: Promotion of food safety/eradicating adulterated food has been listed as one of the four major issues recently identified for action by the Korean government. Due to the related seriousness, the food industry has been encouraged to take steps to restore consumer confidence. In order to set guidelines for the creation of manuals for the response to a food safety crisis by the food industry, this study provided a suggested organization for a crisis response team and operating procedures for crisis response activities. Methods: The prototypes of an organizational structure and a set of standard procedures for a crisis response system were provided. Results: The results of the study suggested that a crisis response team should be comprised of four divisions of responsibility: information analysis, site response, communication and operational support. The organization chart and the role and functions for each division of the crisis response team should be indicated. Response activities will be more effective when the team features multi-disciplined staffing, such as public relations, food safety/technology/quality, sales/marketing, purchasing, production, distribution/logistics, regulatory affairs/legal, and consumer service specialists. This study created a flow chart for the total crisis response system, which included crisis and normal situations. A crisis response team should be continuously operated for both crisis and normal conditions. This study also suggested a scenario to explain the procedures for crisis response activities. Conclusion: In order to cope more effectively with a food safety crisis, the organizational structure and its functions should be defined clearly, and a detailed set of standard procedures for response activities should be offered.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.27-31
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to improve the capacity of public officials that can respond quickly and effectively in the event of food and medical products crisis. In order to improve the emergency response capacity, it must be preceded to identify what kinds of response activities and capacities are needed in case of food and medical product crisis. To this end, this study examined the definition of food and drug related crisis, and investigated and analyzed domestic and international leading researches and data about the capacity related to emergency, crisis or disaster. Based on the result of the analysis, the crisis response capacity was defined as 'the ability to quickly perform response tasks at the time of crisis', and the response tasks were identified by analysing the crisis response manuals of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Since identifying the response tasks clearly can be a basis for training, exercise, and evaluation, it is expected to contribute to enhance the crisis response capabilities directly and effectively.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.35
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• pp.181-210
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• 2006

This frame analysis attempts to shed light on the process by which the Korean press constructs crisis as social reality through a series of risk reporting on food safety. Based on the FSSI(Food Safety Sentiment Index) developed by KIHASA(Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs), 11 cases of food safety reports from 1989 to 2005 were collected from the Korean Integrated News Database System(KINDS) and analyzed to yield the following salient features: risk diffusion frame; attribution of responsibility frame; conflict frame. It was observed that the press exhibited a tendency to approach the food safety incidents from a bi-polarized perspective, amplifying dichotomy between the victim and the perpetrator rather than treating them as scientific, or environmental hazards that require precise and synthesized information for resolution. This occupational habit of attributing status to agents of news was also found to contribute towards construction of crisis as social reality.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.255-292
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• 2018

This paper evaluates the new food policy adopted by the European Union to enhance the food safety after the mad cow crisis occurred in 1990's. Newly introduced rules at the EU level are characterized by two features. Firstly, an important part of them have the form of Regulation which is a binding legislative to all member countries. Secondly, most of them are horizontally applied to the whole food industry, irrespective of their kinds of performance, hygiene or labelling. According to theoretical studies on this topic, any food safety regulation for solving adverse selection problem or reducing negative externality in food consumption should be fine-tuning depending on the concrete demand and costs conditions of the food sector concerned. In this theoretical perspective, the food safety laws introduced at EU level after mad cow crisis have been over-regulated for improving social welfare. The true motivation for the transfer of the policy competence on food safety to the Union level is political rather than economic. Our analysis with a political economic perspective shows that how the EU food regulations have been embraced not only by the governments of member countries, but also by diverse interest groups like food processor & distributors, consumers and agro-livestock groups, and that they have been used as protectionist purpose specially against non-member developing countries. Taking into account the fact that the basic aim to form the Union is to establish a single market to enhance economic efficiency at the Union level, the EU is required to adopt some policy actions to reduce negative effects of too restrictive food safety regulations.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.460-476
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to provide practical implications on government crisis management strategies and on the use of SNS in crisis management. Specifically, this study analyzed Ministry of Drug and Food Safety's responses to paraben toothpaste issue, media coverage of paraben toothpaste issue, and public responses to paraben toothpaste issue. Through textual analysis and the network analysis of 45 news articles and 645 tweets, this study found that Ministry used one-way communication strategy and mostly negative issues regarding Ministry's crisis response strategies were diffused via the media and Twitter. This study was meaningful in that it highlighted the importance of media relations and use of SNS in crisis management. The findings of this study provide useful implications for government officials and PR practitioners in their crisis management and communication strategy.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.386-389
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• 2015

Sibutramine is an anorectic that has been banned since 2010 due to cardiovascular safety issues. However, counterfeit drugs or slimming products that include sibutramine are still available in the market. It has been reported that illegal sibutramine-contained pharmaceutical products induce cardiovascular crisis. However, the mechanism underlying sibutramine-induced cardiovascular adverse effect has not been fully evaluated yet. In this study, we performed cardiovascular safety pharmacology studies of sibutramine systemically using by hERG channel inhibition, action potential duration, and telemetry assays. Sibutramine inhibited hERG channel current of HEK293 cells with an $IC_{50}$ of $3.92{\mu}M$ in patch clamp assay and increased the heart rate and blood pressure ($76{\Delta}bpm$ in heart rate and $51{\Delta}mmHg$ in blood pressure) in beagle dogs at a dose of 30 mg/kg (per oral), while it shortened action potential duration (at $10{\mu}M$ and $30{\mu}M$, resulted in 15% and 29% decreases in $APD_{50}$, and 9% and 17% decreases in $APD_{90}$, respectively) in the Purkinje fibers of rabbits and had no effects on the QTc interval in beagle dogs. These results suggest that sibutramine has a considerable adverse effect on the cardiovascular system and may contribute to accurate drug safety regulation.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.61-78
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• 2013

The following four aspects should be examined in detail to revitalize North-East Asian agricultural cooperation specialized with Korea, Japan, and China. First, quality and safety standards of agricultural food should be unified. Secondly, it is necessary to build a food security cooperative system in North-East Asia. If three countries build the system, they can overcome a problem such as unstable supply and demand due to natural disaster, and also they can cope with food crisis. Thirdly, to establish North-East Asian Agro-valley is needed. After forming food production belt that connects Korea, Hokkaido in Japan, and the three north-eastern provinces in China, it is possible to realize high value-added agriculture with producing and processing of complementary food for partner country. Lastly, trilateral FTA negotiations should be managed carefully with operating the agricultural special zone and exclusion or prolong period of removal of tariff on sensitive items.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.13-29
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• 2000

During the last 10 year period, OECD member countries were in a trend of 'less government' from 'more government', thus resulted in restructuring and reducing staffs in government agricultural institutions including the Agricultural Knowledge System. In recognizing the crisis of 'less government', member countries were in a trend of paradigm shift to the 'better government;. In producing and transferring agricultural information, member countries are more concerned about consumers as well as producers as the target of good quality services of the 'better government'. The general consensus of member countries identified the importance of food safety and environmental protection as new agendas for the 21st century. Agricultural Knowledge Systems (AKS) in OECD member countries were in a trend of reorganization in addressing food safety, and agriculture / environmental issues. The approaches, functions and responsibilities were diversified to multi-governmental institutions from the ministry of agriculture. Thus the importance of institutional cooperation and coordination were emphasized more in the newly changed AKS paradigms. The objectives, functions and approaches of AKS in OECD member countries as well as in Korea will be directed to emphasize the importance of environment, sustainable agriculture, food safety, and rural development. They will also focus on establishing mutual cooperative systems among policy makers, consumes, non-governmental organizations, and agri-related organizations as necessary for sustainable development in the future.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.3-18
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• 2016

The status of Korean food security was analyzed by considering world food situation and food self-sufficiency of Korea, and the hurdles to be solved by science and technology were highlighted. The role of food science and technology in preparing for future food crisis was reviewed in four categories: application of modern biotechnology to increase food production, use of irradiation technology for food storage, food processing technology for rice utilization in particular, and improving food safety regulation system for waste reduction.