• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.24-33
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• 2015

This study examined the utilization of processed food and the recognition of food labels among 257 university students (201 females and 56 males) in Seoul and Kangwon-do. The results of the study showed that the most important considered information on food labels are shelf life, nutrition facts, and price in sequential order. Female students' recognition of nutrition facts was significantly higher than that of male students (p<0.05). Female students more attentively checked the manufacturer, origin of the products, and shelf life information on food labels than did the male students. In checking out the food labels information, the most checked items on food labels were calories, trans fatty acid and cholesterol in that order and the least checked information was the sodium contents. Among processed foods, male students' consumption was dominant in instant noodles, frozen dumplings, and canned goods, while female students had more candies/chocolates. In selecting processed foods, male students showed strong preference for cheaper and quantitative products, while female students chose more tasty, brand new, well-known brand, and products of domestic origin. Frequency of canned and frozen food consumption showed a positive correlation with BMI, while candies/chocolates showed a negative correlations with BMI. Negative correlations were found in the attitude of selecting food with longer shelf life and BMI. The results of this study suggest that university students need to be well informed to make wise food choices that contribute to a healthy diet. Additionally, food manufacturers and government authorities concerned should make certain that consumers know how to use food label information more easily and effectively through proper education.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.796-806
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• 2012

This study was conducted to investigate dietary attitude, and nutritional knowledge of middle school students in Gwangju and examine their perception and utilization of food labeling systems. The total and mean dietary attitude scores were 75 and 49.47, respectively. The total and mean nutrition knowledge scores were 15 and 10.88, respectively. Girls showed significantly higher nutrition knowledge than boys (p<0.01). Overall, 62.9% of respondents checked food labeling, and there were significant differences in dietary attitudes among groups that did and did not checking labeling (p<0.001), with higher dietary attitude being associated with checking the label. Moreover, higher nutritional knowledge was associated with checking the food label. Individuals who checked the food label considered the expiration date (54.9%), product name (14.4%) and price (10.2%). The main reasons for checking food labeling were (in descending order) to confirm the expiration date (61.6%), determine the ingredients and nutritional information, learn how to store the product, and compare the price and weight with other products. The overall satisfaction with the food labeling system was 16.20 out of 30, and significant differences (p<0.001) were observed among individuals with high, moderate and low dietary attitudes, as indicated by satisfaction scores of 17.54, 16.32 and 14.86, respectively. Individuals with high, moderate and low dietary attitudes had nutritional knowledge scores of 15.79, 16.08, and 17.08 respectively. The overall score for understanding nutrition labeling was 4.71 out of 7, and the understanding differed significantly among groups (p<0.01), with those with moderate food attitudes having the highest score.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.134-142
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• 2020

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: North Korean refugees (NKRs) in South Korea are a unique population as they must adapt in a new country with similar cultural traits but different social, political, and economic systems, but little research has been conducted on diet and nutrition in this population. This study examined food security, dietary behaviors, and nutrient intakes among adult NKRs living in South Korea and compared them to those of South Koreans. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The subjects were 139 adult NKRs (25 men, 114 women) living in the Seoul metropolitan area, and 417 age- and sex- matched South Korean controls (SKCs; 75 men, 342 women) selected from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Food security and dietary behaviors (meal skipping, eating-out, meals with family, nutrition education and counseling, and nutrition label knowledge and utilization) were obtained using self-administered questionnaires. Nutrient intakes were assessed by 24-hr recall. The statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS ver. 23.0. RESULTS: In South Korea, food security had improved over the previous 12 months, but remained significantly poorer for NKR women than SKC women. Meal skipping was three times more frequent than for SKCs and eating-out was rare. Average energy intake was 1,509 kcal for NKR men and 1,344 kcal for NKR women, which was lower than those of SKCs (2,412 kcal and 1,789 kcal, respectively). Significantly more NKRs (men 24.0%, women 21.9%) showed simultaneously deficient intake in energy, calcium, iron, vitamin A, and riboflavin than SKCs (men 2.7% (P = 0.003), women 7.0% (P < 0.001)). NKR women had a significantly higher index of nutrient quality (INQ) for some nutrients than SK women. CONCLUSIONS: This study reports significant differences in food security, dietary behaviors, and nutrient intakes between NKRs and SKCs. Generally, NKRs reported lower intakes despite improved food security, but relatively good INQs across nutrients. Further research is needed to understand processes of food choice and consumption among NKRs to provide appropriate support aimed at improving diets.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.434-444
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• 2019

Prevalence of allergic diseases is influenced by environment and dietary life. It is key to improve daily food life to relieve them. Food nutrition labeling is useful to do it by offering nutrition information. The purpose of the study is to find relationship between experience of diagnosis of allergic diseases and recognition of food nutrition labeling. The data of 4,928 people with experience on diagnosis allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis of 2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey was used. According to the result of binary logistic regression analysis, those who had experience in being diagnosed with an allergy showed high awareness in food labels. There were differences between allergy diagnosis groups and allergy non-diagnosis in affecting factors of residence, income level, subjective health status and body-shape perception. Support measures are needed to enhance access and convenience to nutrition education and nutrition labeling to support nutrition labeling utilization.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.379-393
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• 2011

This study compared the college students' dietary behavior for processed foods, who will be the main consumers in the future and looked for the measures to understand and establish the right food labeling system by surveying the level of understanding and utilization of food labeling. The data was analysed by SPSS win 17.0 program, and the results are as follows. For the standard of selecting processed foods, the group with high nutrition knowledge considered the reliability of foods as important and the group with low nutrition knowledge considered the products introduced in TV commercial as important. When purchasing processed foods, the group with high nutrition knowledge considered nutrition, taste, price, appearance(shape), and the consumable period more than the group with low nutrition knowledge. For trans fat, the group with high nutrition knowledge learned more about it than the group with low nutrition knowledge. The ratio of confirming food nutrition label was higher in the group with high nutrition knowledge. Regarding the level of confirming individual food labels, the highest level was for milk and dairy products. And there was significant difference for the processed products of meat, cookies, bread and noodles. It was found that the level of confirmation was higher in the group with high nutrition knowledge. And the most important indication for individual food product was the consumable period. To preserve the purchased foods, the group with high nutrition knowledge preserve the foods in line with the description written on the food cover sheet, and this group used to return or exchange the products when they found them spoiled or purchased by mistake. The group with high nutrition knowledge knew more about the nutrition indication than the group with low nutrition knowledge. The necessity of nutrition indication for processed foods and the need of education and PR(Public Relation) were acknowledged higher in the group with high nutrition knowledge. For the effect of nutrition indication, it showed that the group with high nutrition knowledge thought it would improve the quality and the group with low nutrition knowledge thought it would be helpful when comparing the product with others. The group with high nutrition knowledge showed higher understanding level about nutrition indication than the group with low nutrition knowledge.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.437-444
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• 2016

This study was carried out to investigate food label perception and utilization classified by age and sex. Questionnaires were collected from 938 male and female customers aged in their 20's to 50's from February 4th to March 30th 2014. Regarding checking food labels at the time of purchase, 73.8% of consumers checked food labels, and there was a significant difference by age and sex. Female more often checked food labels than males, and the 40's group showed a higher ratio of checking food labels than other age groups. The main reason for checking food label was 'confirming expiration date' (60%), 'ingredients' (16.4%), and 'nutrition contents' (13.7%). The main reason not checking food labels was 'too small and insufficient to understand' (50.3%), 'too difficult to understand' (16.4%), and 'have no concern' (14.9%). There was a significant difference by age, as in the 50's group showed a higher ratio of 'too small and insufficient to understand' than the other age groups, and 20's and 30's groups showed a higher ratio of 'too difficult to understand'. The overall satisfaction score was 2.96, awareness score was 2.88, and reliability score was 2.93. A total of 96% answered that food labelling education is needed. Therefore, food labelling education for consumers is required to encourage consumers to purchase healthy foods.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.203-215
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• 2019

This study was conducted to identify the utilization of public health centers, as well as the individual characteristics and regional characteristics that affect their utilization based on data from the 2016 Community Health Survey, National Statistical Portal, and National Institute of Environmental Research. Independent samples t-tests, variance analysis, and multiple logistic regression analysis were used for analysis. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyze individual and regional characteristics. The results of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that aged regions, women, older age individuals, respondents with lower education level and income level, walking practitioners, nutrition label readers, individuals experiencing depression, those who have received health checkups, those who are not covered by essential care, those who have spouses, and basic livelihood beneficiaries have increased use of public health centers. However, the use of public health centers decreased in stressors, and regions in which the population per 1,000, number of health care workers, health and welfare budget, fiscal independence, and unemployment rate were above the national average. As above, the central government and local governments need to analyze not only individual characteristics such as health behavior and psychological factors, but also regional characteristics, when establishing local health care policy.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.948-953
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• 1999

The objective of this study was to contribute to the enhancement of food labeling and the development of food labels which are more informative to consumers. The questionnaires had been collected from adult female consumers living in Seoul, Kyonggi, Choongnam and Chungbuk province. Out of 950 answers collected 792 were analyzed. Ninety two percent of respondents were aware of food labels, however only 67.6% of them knew about the fact that food labeling was regulated by the law. Respondents recognized the major purpose of food labeling as informing and protecting the consumer. Most of the respondents answered that they confirmed the contents of food labels at the time of purchase especially with regard to safety aspects, such as expiration on data and manufacture date. Eighty four percent of the respon dents showed confidence in the contents of food labels.The rests answered they were hot confident because they experienced directly, or indirectly discord of food contents in fact and in label.