• Food Science and Industry
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.51-59
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• 2017

Due to the nature of HMR food that is susceptible to contamination, its safety management is becoming more important. The relevant food types in food code corresponding to HMR foods are addressed, and the criteria for hygiene indicator bacteria and food poisoning bacteria, and storage and distribution standards according to the product type were presented. The government's safety management for HMR foods is basically carried out through the Food Sanitation Act. Those who intend to do HMR business must complete business registration or declaration, hygiene education, health examination of employees, and comply with legal obligations such as HACCP application. The government confirms compliance with legal requirements through hygiene inspection and monitoring inspection of products. However, the safety of HMR foods is not realized by the safety management system alone. A food safety culture should be established in which industry workers and consumers carry out actions to ensure food safety.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.217-226
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• 2015

This study was conducted to establish a standardized process for developing food safety health indicators. With this aim, we proposed a standardized process, accessed the validity of the suggested process by performing simulations, and provided a method to utilize the indicators. Developing process for domestic environmental health indicators was benchmarked to propose a standardized process for developing food safety health indicators, and DPSEEA framework was applied to the development of indicators. The suggested standardized process consists of an exploitation stage and a management stage. In the exploitation stage, a total of 6 procedures (initial indicators suggestion, candidate indicators selection, data availability assessment, feasibility assessment, pilot study, and final indicator selection) are conducted, and the indicators are routinely calculated and officially announced in the management stage. The exploitation stage is operated by an interaction between a task force team who manages the overall process, and an advisory committee (minimum of 4 in academia, 2 in research, 4 in specialists of Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) who reviews and performs evaluations on the indicators. The standardized process was simulated with 45 initial indicators, and total of 4 indicators (17 detailed indicators) were selected: 'Proportion of domestic fruit/vegetable receiving 'acceptable' in the evaluation of pesticide/herbicide residues', 'Food-borne disease outbreaks', 'Food-borne legal infectious disease incidence', 'Salmonellosis incidence'. Synthetic food safety health index was derived by calculating percent difference with the data from 2010 to 2012. Results showed that when comparing the year 2010 to 2011, and 2011 to 2012, the overall food safety status improved by 10.37% and 9.87%, respectively. In addition, the contribution of indicators to the overall food safety status can be determined by looking into the individual indicators, and the synthetic index may be illustrated to enhance the ease of interpretation to the public and policy makers. In overall, food health safety indicators can be useful in many ways and therefore, attention should be drawn to conduct further studies and establish related legislations.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.227-235
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• 2015

Food-Health indicators have been developed and utilized internationally in the 'Food' domain of environment and health indicators. In Korea, however, Food Safety Health Indicators which are in the introductory stage had been developed separately from Environmental Health Indicators. The aim of the current study is to suggest feasible applications of the domestic Food Safety Health Indicators as a case study. We introduced 3 possible applications which are as follows: 1) production of two types of Integrated Food Safety Health Index; 2) conduction of correlation analysis between the Integrated Food Safety Health Index and Food Safety Health Indicators; 3) conduction of regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between the Integrated Food Safety Health Index and socioeconomic status. As a result, we provided the calculated Integrated Food Safety Health Index I and Integrated Food Safety Health Index II, which represents the regional food safety level in relative and absolute terms, respectively. Integrated Food Safety Health Index I was significantly correlated with the outbreaks of food-borne diseases (caused by Campylobacter jejuni, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella spp. and unknown cause) and incidence of E.coli infections. Integrated Food Safety Health Index II significantly decreased as the proportion of foreigners and women increased, and increased as the population density increased. Utilization of such Integrated Food Safety Health Indicators may be helpful in understanding the overall domestic food safety level and identifying the indicators which must be considered with priorities to enhance the food safety levels regionally and domestically. Furthermore, analyzing the association between Integrated Food Safety Health Index and factors other than food safety could be useful in conducting risk management and identifying susceptible populations. Food Safety Health Indicators can be useful in other applications, and may serve as a supporting material in establishing or modifying policy plans to enhance food safety. Therefore, keen interests by researchers accompanied by further studies on food safety health indicators are needed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.82-89
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• 2015

Objectives: This study was performed to investigate the effect of cooking time on the internal temperature and color of cutlets and the reduction of indicator organisms in cutlets by cooking. Methods: Three kinds of commercially packed frozen cutlets (pork, chicken and fish cutlets), were purchased from local markets. The cutlets were cooked in a frying pan at $180^{\circ}C$ for four minutes. Internal temperature was measured with a food thermometer. Color was measured using a Hunter spectrocolorimeter. Aerobic colony counts, coliforms, and Escherichia coli were determined according to the Food Code of Korea. Results: The internal cooked temperature of every cutlet reached over $74^{\circ}C$, the temperature considered safe, after three minutes, while external temperature reached this level in two minutes (p < 0.001). The instrumental color value as lightness (L) in the cooked cutlets significantly changed (p < 0.001) after one minute. The level of aerobic colony counts of fresh cutlets was under the specification and was reduced to one tenth its level in the cooked cutlets. Coliforms and E. coli were not detected in all samples. The internal temperature of the cutlets was significantly affected by cooking time and weight (p < 0.001). The interaction effect of time and weight was also significant (p < 0.001), and time was the more influential factor. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the sampled cutlets should be cooked for a minimum of three minutes or more in order to ensure food safety. The results also indicate that if consumers cease cooking based on external temperature or color, there will be a risk of inadequate cooking.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2011

This study was performed to develop a children's dietary life safety index required by the Special Act on Safety Management of Children's Dietary Life enacted in 2009. An analytical hierarchy process was used to obtain initial weights of dietary life safety evaluation indicators. The Delphi method was applied to develop the weights along with 98 food and nutrition professionals. Three representative policy indicators, nine strategy indicators, 11 main evaluation indicators, and 20 detailed evaluation indicators were selected for the children's dietary life safety assessment. Three policy indicators and nine strategy indicators were the following: children's food safety indicator (support level of children' safety, safety management level of children's favorite foods, and safety management level of institutional food service), children's nutrition safety indicator (management level of missing meals and obesity, nutrition management level of children's favorite foods, and nutrition management level of institutional food service), and children's perception and practice level indicator ("Dietary Life Law" perception level, perception, and practice level for dietary life safety management, perception, and practice level for nutrition management). Weights of 40%, 40%, and 20% were given for the three representative policy indicators. The relative importance of nine strategic indicators, which were determined by the Delphi method is as follows: For children’s food safety, support level of children's safety, safety management level of children's favorite foods, and safety management level of institutional food service were given weights of 12%, 9%, and 19%, respectively. For children's nutrition safety, the missing meals and obesity management level, nutrition management level of children's favorite foods, and the nutrition management level of institutional food service were given weights of 13%, 11%, and 16%, respectively. The "Dietary Life Law" perception level, perception and practice level of dietary life safety management, and perception and practice level of nutrition management were given weights of 4%, 7%, and 9%, respectively.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.500-506
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• 2017

Kimchi cabbage is one of the four major vegetable crops in Korea. The total annual production of kimchi cabbage, the main material of kimchi, was 20,559 tons in 2015. Kimchi cabbage is one of the majer crops produced by farmers which accounts for about 80% of the total leaf vegetable production in Korea. As the consumption of environmental-friendly agricultural products increases, food safety is one of the major public health concerns. We analyzed the biological hazards of kimchi cabbage produced by two types of cultivation methos such as organic farming and conventional farming using various culture media and microscopy. A total of 432 samples were analysed for presence of sanitary indicator microorganisms (aerobic plate count, coliform count, yeast & mold) and food-borne pathogens (Staphylococcus aureus, environmental Listeria, Bacillus cereus). The population of sanitary indicating microorganisms and food borne pathogens was under 5 Log CFU/g in all tested samples. The results of total microorganism numbers of leaf surface showed a positive correlation to those of soil samples. Additionally, we examined chemical factors such as pesticide residues and heavy metals in soil samples. All tested samples did not shown contamination levels higher than the standard limit.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1337-1340
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• 2008

The objective of this study was to evaluate the microbial safety of raw beef used to produce Korean beef jerky, The raw beef samples harbored large populations of microorganisms. In particular, psychrophilic bacteria were found to be most numerous ($9.2{\times}10^3-1.0{\times}10^5\;CFU/g$) in the samples. Mesophilic bacteria and anaerobic bacteria were present in average numbers ($10^3-10^5\;CFU/g$). Spore-forming bacteria and coliforms were not detected below detection limit. Yeast and molds were detected at $2.2{\times}10^1-7.8{\times}10^2\;CFU/g$ in the raw beef. Ten samples of raw beef were analyzed for the presence of pathogenic bacteria. Bacillus cereus was isolated from sample B, G, and H. The B. cereus isolates from raw beef samples were identified with 99.8% agreement according to the API CHB 50 kit.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.61-71
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• 2024

In this study, we analyzed chlorogenic acid indicator components in preparation for the additional listing of green coffee bean extract in the Health Functional Food Code and optimized caffeine for simultaneous analysis. We extracted chlorogenic acid and caffeine using 30% methanol, phosphoric acid solution, and acetonitrile-containing phosphoric acid and analyzed them at 330 and 280 nm, respectively, using liquid chromatography. Our analysis validation results yielded a correlation coefficient (R²) revealing a significance level of at least 0.999 within the linear quantitative range. The chlorogenic acid and caffeine detection and quantification limits were 0.5 and 0.2 ㎍/mL and 1.4, and 0.4 ㎍/mL, respectively. We confirmed that the precision and accuracy results were suitable using the AOAC validation guidelines. Finally, we developed a simultaneous chlorogenic acid and caffeine analysis approach. In addition, we confirmed that our analysis approach could simultaneously quantify chlorogenic acid and caffeine by examining the applicability of each formulation through prototypes and distribution products. In conclusion, the results of this study demonstrated that the standardized analysis would expectably increase chlorogenic acidcontaining health functional food quality control reliability.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.217-227
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• 2023

The consumption of ready-to-eat side dishes is rapidly growing in South Korea. These foods are particularly vulnerable to microbiological contamination as they are often cooked without any treatment, such as heating or stored at room temperature after cooking. Hence, in 2022, we analyzed the ready-to-eat side dishes sold in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea for microbiological contamination. We collected 100 samples from supermarkets in 7 cities, and then examined them for presence of food-borne pathogens and sanitary indicator bacteria. In the analysis of the food-borne pathogens, Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens were isolated from 51 samples (51.0%) and 3 samples (3.0%), respectively. However, both quantitatively met the Korean Food Standards Codex. Genes of five different enterotoxins and one emetic toxin were analyzed from the 51 isolated B. cereus strains. We detected enterotoxin entFM (100.0%), nheA (94.1%), hblC (58.8%), cytK (56.9%), and bceT (41.2%) in 51 isolates, and emetic toxin gene, CER, in only one (2.0%) isolate. We did not detect C. perfringens toxin gene (cpe) that causes food poisoning in any one of the three C. perfringens isolates. In the case of sanitary indicator bacteria, Kimchi had the highest levels of total aerobic bacteria and coliforms, followed by Saengchae, Jeotgal, Jeolim, Namul, and Jorim, respectively. We counted total aerobic bacteria at two different storage temperatures (4℃ and 20℃) to determine the effect of storage temperature. When stored at 20℃, total aerobic bacteria count increased in most of the ready-to-eat side dishes, except for Jeotgal. This result conclusively shows the need for refrigerating the ready-to-eat side dishes after purchase. Further research is needed to assess the risk and safety of the ready-to-eat side dishes available in the market and determine appropriate safety management practices.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.429-440
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• 2021

Objectives: Standardized guidelines and reference points for a food security policy are necessary to guarantee that basic social safety nets work properly. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the basic concepts and detailed dimensions of food security, including the potential relevant indicators, and sought to establish standardized well-being baselines. Methods: A literature review and 14 expert roundtable discussions were carried out to analyze and extract the key concepts of food security. After determining these concepts and detailed dimensions of food security, a conceptual framework was modeled. Then, indicators for each local government that could be monitored and evaluated for each sub-area were suggested. Results: The concept of food security was defined as follows: Individuals should be provided with sufficient, safe, and quality food, which should be accessible to the community and available for use to achieve health and well-being. In addition, food security should be ensured sustainably in a changing environment. Four dimensions were suggested while conceptualizing food security. First, sufficient food, which means sufficient food supply in quantity, quality, and safety. Second, equitable food which includes creating environments in which high-quality and safe food can be purchased at an appropriate price and can be provided regardless of the socioeconomic gap. Third, healthy food which should be provided to promote people's health and happiness through the eco-friendly consumption of food. Fourth, sustainable food, which can be supplied in a sustainable manner and as part of an eco-friendly food system that considers the conservation of natural environments. Conclusions: The basic concepts and detailed areas of food security including the potential indicators proposed in this study, may be useful for developing and implementing various policies and programs to support food and nutrition security in the future.