• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.123-139
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• 2023

In this study, a survey was conducted on the development of meal kits for children's foodservice to increase the convenience of the cooking process. It was performed among the foodservice managers in the 141 children's foodservice facilities registered in the Center for Children's Foodservice Management about meal-kits in Changwon areas. The survey results were analyzed according to the children's foodservice scale type. The biggest problem in a foodservice system was "difficult to purchase food ingredients directly every week" (38.4%) in small-scale children's foodservices, and "difficult to use the served menu without modification" (38.2%) in institutional children's foodservices (P<0.001). The most important factor when choosing the meal kit was "quality" (41.1%). Respondents on having an experience with using the meal kit were low at 34.8%, and the reasons for not using the meal kits were "expensive" (67.3%) and "not fresh food ingredients" (18.4%). The main reasons for not using children's foodservice meal kits were "expensiveness" (64.4%) and "necessity of adding disinfection process" (16.1%). Most of the reasons for not wanting to use children's foodservice meal kits were that they did not trust the safety of the meal kits. The use of meal kits in children's foodservices may reduce the preparation process and increase the efficiency of foodservice although the safety and quality of meal kits should be guaranteed. The appropriate hygiene management standards need to be set, and HACCP should be applied to develop meal kits for children's foodservices.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.1-8
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the importance of customers' selection attributes for meal kits, which is rapidly increasing in the home meal replacement food market, and empirically analyze the effect of food selection attributes on consumer satisfaction and repurchase intention toward meal kits. Research design, data, and methodology: Based on the results of previous research, factors that customers consider the most when purchasing a meal kit are nutritional components, ingredients, hygiene, taste, and price. The empirical analysis is conducted by using structural equation modeling to determine the extent that customer selection attributes for meal kits affect customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. The survey is conducted online from January 1 to March 15, 2022, and 282 valid samples are used for the analysis. Results: The result of the analysis confirms that nutritional components, hygiene, taste, and price have a statistically significant effect on customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. However, the effect of food ingredients on customer satisfaction and repurchase intention is rejected because no statistically significant results are obtained. Conclusions: As an empirical analysis of the importance of customer selection attributes of meal kits, this study has meaningful implications for related industries and business-to-business operators and provides basic data for the strategic development of related industries.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.352-363
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• 2021

This study aimed to examine the different factors affecting the intention to purchase meal kits between at-home concept meal kits and eating-out concept meal kits. An online survey was conducted with 565 Korean participants including meal kit experienced (n=412) and non-experienced (n=153). Meal kits selection attributes were organized into five factors, health, price, environmental protection, convenience, and familiarity. To verify the hypothesis, SPSS Statistics 23 was used. The main results can be summarized as follows. First, in the case of the at-home menu, convenience(p < .01), environmental protection(p < .05), and familiarity(p < .01) show positive influences on willingness to buy. Second, for the eating-out menu, health(p < .001) and convenience(p < .001) have positive effects on willingness to buy, but familiarity(p<.01) has a negative effect. This is the first study to categorize the menu of meal kits and investigate each factor affecting willingness to buy. Therefore, the results can offer useful guidelines to meal kit marketers letting them know the consumers' purchase behaviors.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.324-335
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• 2021

As the COVID pandemic has been prolonged, 'Contact-free' has emerged as a major trend keyword. Naturally, most people don't go out and eat at home. As a result, sales of products that can easily cooked such as 'meal-kits' have increased remarkably. Although the number of vegetarians is increasing rapidly in Korea, the domestic market has not been activated. Most vegetarians are cooking or eating HMR together due to the lack of vegetarian restaurants and vegetarian menus. According to the survey, the subjects perceive meal-kit as positive as their experience with meal-kit expanded, and this positive perception and the need for vegetarian meal-kits had a positive effect on the purchase intention of the vegetarian meal-kit. This study presents the direction and potential for development of vegetarian meal kits that meet consumer needs. It will be used as a basis for the development of products and expansion of the market for vegetarian meal-kits.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.15-30
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• 2021

This study was conducted to investigate the utilization and satisfaction of meal-kits according to food-related lifestyle among total 357 adults who had experience in using meal-kits. This study can provide basic data for effective menu composition and directions toward improvement. The participants of the study were classified into 5 groups 'health-type group', 'economic-type group', 'safety-type group', 'tasty-type group' and 'convenience-type group'. The 'tastye-type group' were found to spend more on purchasing meal-kits than other groups with the higher proportion(36.66%) of spending '30,000-50,000'won(p<0.05), which is the highest price category. The important factors that contributed to purchasing a meal-kits were 'taste'(50.98%), and 'economic-type group' showed the highest tendency of considering taste (58.46%). About half(49.02%) of the respondents preferred 'Korean-food' for meal-kits as for the type of food. All groups highly preferred 'meat'(42.58%) as the main ingredient, particularly the 'tasty-type group'(53.33%)(p<0.001). The 'tasty-type group' showed the highest satisfaction on 'convenience of cooking'(4.05), and 'convenience-type group' showed the lowest satisfaction on the 'origin of ingredient'(2.98) among groups (p<0.01). The overall response indicated that most respondents are willing to use meal-kits in the future (97.20%); and 93.28% of respondents would recommend the purchase of meal-kits to others, where 'convenience of cooking/purchase' was the factor contributing most for recommending(67.23%). Taken together, 'taste' was the most important factor for all groups. And 'Convenience of cooking' was the factor contributing to satisfaction most while 'origin of ingredient' contributing the least. It is recommended for the growth of meal-kits industry, to improve the quality of the meal-kits products and develop various menus.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.246-257
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• 2023

In this study, the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior (ETPB) was applied to analyze consumers' intention to purchase meal kits. The perception of ESG management practiced by companies was used as a moderating variable to investigate its influence and moderating effects between each variable. An online survey was conducted over 4 days in January 2023 on consumers aged 20 years or older who had purchased meal kits within 6 months. Hypotheses were tested using IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 and AMOS 24.0 programs with an effective sample size of 324 copies (100%). Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, perceived sustainable package, and price sensitivity of the theory of planned behavior toward meal kit products had a significant positive effect on purchase intention, and all research hypotheses were accepted. The moderating effect of consumers' perceptions of ESG management practiced by companies had a positive and significant effect on attitude and perceived behavioral control.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.117-134
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• 2023

This study analyzed the willingness to pay for meal kit products of Millefeuille Nabe and Gambas al-Ahiyo, and willingness to pay and purchase intentions according to various characteristics to suggest a meal kit marketing strategy that reflected consumer preference. It was found that the price of meal kits is higher than the price of individual ingredients and lower than the price of meal kits in the current market. The willingness to pay for Millefeuille Nabe is higher in the group that pursues quality and taste, and the more satisfied with the certification system, the higher their willingness to pay for both Millefeuille Nabe and Gambas al-Ahiyo. In addition, the higher the satisfaction with the pleasure, taste, and price of the meal kit, the higher the intention to purchase in the future. Therefore, to increase the willingness to pay and purchases intentions in the future, the quality of meal kit ingredients must be carefully revised and supplemented, and various products are developed and reflected in the marketing strategy.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.253-263
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to analyse factors related to Home Meal Replacement (HMR) use among university students and to determine the dietary quality according to its consumption. A survey on the consumption of HMR and Nutrition Quotient (NQ) was conducted from September to November 2021. The study included 232 university students (88 males, 144 females) from Chungcheong. The proportion of consumption at least once a week was 71.55% for ready-to-eat foods, 55.60% for ready-to-cook foods, 40.95% for fresh-cut products, and 21.12% for meal-kits. The preference ratings were as follows: ready-to-eat foods, 3.77 out of 5 points, meal-kits, 3.53 points, fresh-cut products, 3.52 points, and ready-to-cook foods, 3.45 points. In terms of satisfaction, convenience (4.06 out of 5 points), taste (3.71 points), variety (3.67 points), and food hygiene (3.62 points) were rated the highest. The scores in the moderation NQ were significantly lower in the groups that consumed ready-to-eat foods (p=0.0002), ready-to-cook foods (p=0.0002), and meal-kits (p=0.0068) at least once a week compared to the groups that consumed them less than once a week. In conclusion, the results will serve as basic data for nutrition education for proper consumption of HMR among university students.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.87-96
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• 2022

Recently, the purchase of fresh-cut produce and meal kits has increased. Ready-to-eat (RTE) fresh-cut products have potentially hazard of cross-contamination of various microorganisms in the processes of peeling, slicing, dicing, and shredding. There are frequent cases of protozoa food poisoning, such as Cyclospora and Cryptosporidium, caused by fresh-cut products. The objective of the study is to investigate the microbiological qualities of various types of RTE fresh-cut products in the domestic on/offline markets. RTE fresh-cut fruits cup (n=100), fresh-cut vegetables (n=50), and vegetables in meal kits (Vietnamese spring rolls and white radish rolls kits, n=50) were seasonally analyzed. The contamination levels of hygienic indicator organisms, yeast and mold (YM), and foodborne pathogens (Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Escherichia coli O157:H7) were monitored. Overall, the lowest microbiological qualities of meal kits vegetables were observed, followed by RTE fresh-cut fruits cup and fresh-cut vegetables. Contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria, coliforms, and YM in meal kits vegetables were 5.91, 3.90, and 4.71 logs CFU/g, respectively. From the qualitative analysis, 6 out of 200 RTE fresh-cut products (3%) returned positive result for S. aureus. From the quantitative analysis, the contamination levels of S. aureus in purple cabbage from a meal-kit and fresh-cut pineapple were below the acceptable limit (100 CFU/g). Staphylococcus enterotoxin seg and sei genes were detected in RTE fresh-cut celery and red cabbage from meal-kits, respectively. S. aureus contamination must be carefully controlled during the manufacturing processes of RTE fresh-cut products. Neither Cyclospora cayetanensis nor Cryptosporidium parvum was detected in the samples of RTE fresh-cut products and vegetables from meal-kits from the Korean retail markets.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.315-329
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• 2023

Purpose: This study examined the meal-kit consumption practices of adults in their 20s and 30s and analyzed the properties that should be given priority for improvement among the selection attributes to improve the quality of meal-kits. Methods: Statistical analyses were conducted using the SPSS program (ver. 28.0) for χ²-test, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Duncan's multiple range test, factor analysis, and Importance-Satisfaction Analysis (ISA). Results: Of the 249 subjects surveyed, 85.5% had some experience of purchasing meal-kits, with significantly more females than males (p < 0.01), significantly more married people than single people (p < 0.05), significantly more employed people than unemployed people (p < 0.05). Meal-kits were purchased most frequently for meals (60.6%), from discount stores or supermarkets (44.6%), and priced between 10,000 won and 20,000 won per person (46.9%). The overall satisfaction with meal-kits was 4.1 out of 5.0 points. The frequency of purchases was Korean soup dishes (69.5%), Korean main dishes (47.4%), and Korean street snacks (46.9%). Factor analysis of the meal-kit selection attributes revealed, 4 factors: 'quality of food,' 'packaging and diversity,' 'quality of meal-kit,' and 'convenience and price.' Compared to single-person households, multi-person households placed significantly higher importance on the 'quality of food,' 'packaging and diversity,' and 'quality of meal-kit.' The factor, 'packaging and diversity' were significantly higher in the importance evaluation scores for females (p < 0.01), married people (p < 0.05), and people in their 30s (p < 0.05) among meal-kit consumers. According to the ISA results, a critical aspect that meal-kit manufacturers or sellers should strengthen is 'price.' Conclusion: Meal-kit products will need to be developed for various purposes that offer high value for money that can satisfy the consumers' needs to improve the satisfaction of meal-kit consumers.