• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.280-290
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• 2020

Objectives: This study investigated the menu and nutritional contents of convenience store lunchboxes, and evaluated the nutritional content by meal type, price, and store brand. Methods: In September 2019, 93 convenience store lunchboxes from the top five franchise stores were purchased. Relevant information on price, food weight, food ingredients, cooking methods, and nutrition labeling were subsequently collected. Nutritional content was evaluated based on the daily value (DV) and Index of Nutritional Quality (INQ), and energy contribution of carbohydrate, protein, fat, saturated fat and sugar was compared with the recommended range. Results: Most lunchboxes included the food groups; grains/starches, meats/fish/eggs/legumes, and vegetables. However, none provided fruits, and only a few lunchboxes provided milk/milk products. Stir-frying, deep-frying, and pan-frying were the most frequent methods of cooking. The average energy content of the lunchboxes was 736.6 kcal, whereas the average contents of protein, fat and saturated fat were higher than 40% of the DV, and sodium content was 66.8% of the DV. The contents of most nutrients in traditional type lunchboxes were higher, as compared to nutrients in onedish type lunchboxes. Considering pricing of lunchboxes, protein and sodium contents were higher in the higher-priced lunchboxes as compared to lower-priced lunchboxes, but there were no differences in the INQs. The contents of energy, protein, fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol significantly differed by brand. Conclusions: Our results indicate that convenience store lunchboxes contain high levels of protein, fat, saturated fat, and sodium. The nutritional contents differed by meal type, price, and store brand, and higher price did not imply higher nutritional quality. We propose the need to educate consumers to check nutrition labels and purchase appropriate lunchboxes. Manufacturers also need to make efforts to reduce the amounts of fat, saturated fat, and sodium, and not provide protein in excess.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 1999

Special nutritional foods are one category of processed foods. In this category, 5 different food standards are defined in the current rule of the Korean Food Code ; that is, infant formulae, complementary foods for infants and young children, foods nutrient supplementation, processed dietary fiber-based foods, and foods for special dietary uses. The major differences between the special dietary uses. The major difference between the special nutritional foods and the other processed foods is that the special nutritional foods are characterized by their dietary uses for specific population groups rather than food ingredients or manufacturing and processing techniques which characterize and distinguish most of other processed foods. Although several countries establish similar standards for this type of foods, they use different legal names such as foods for special dietary uses(U.S.A., CODEX, Japan), foodstuffs intended for particular nutritional uses(EC), or special purpose foods(Australia). In addition, there are some other differences in the definitions for these food types and categorization of food types among countries. The major difference in the definitions is the description of 'special dietary uses' by specifying certain population groups whose nutrient requirements are different from those of ordinary men due to physiological or physical conditions and therefore may not be sufficiently met by consuming ordinary foods. The categorization of this type of foods is based on the type of dietary uses in the other countries, whereas we include foods simply supplemented with nutrients or foods having certain components such as dietary fibers even if these foods types do not have special dietary sues. Recently, a revision of standards for special nutritional food has been proposed. However, the description of 'special dietary uses' is not clearly indicated in the definition, and some food types which should not be categorized into the special nutritional foods still remain in this category. In order to correct these problems, the standard of food labeling in the Food Safety Law needs to be revised along with revision of food standards in the Food Code.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.519-533
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• 2007

This study was carried out to investigate the nutrition knowledge, dietary attitudes, and dietary habits of girl's high school students in Kunsan, and to investigate their recognition of food-nutrition labeling. The results are summarized as follows. General nutrition knowledge is relatively low, with an average of 0.57. It was shown that high school female students skipped breakfast rather than lunch or dinner, with a skipping rate of 28.9% for breakfast, 0.7% for lunch, and 8.6% for dinner. Regarding snacks, 35.5% of all the surveyed students had 1 snack per day, with 31.9% having them between lunch and dinner. The most popular snacks include biscuits (22.3%), noodles (18.3%) and bakery (13.3%). The most popular response was that students 'sometimes checked' the food label of processed domestic and imported processed food. The level of satisfaction with food labels is moderate, with an average of 2.96, out of 5. The most satisfactory title about food labels was 'helpful for food selection' with 3.19. On the other hand, the least satisfactory title was 'understands the label' with 2.78. Regarding the identification of the nutrition labeling, the highest response was 'sometimes watched, sometimes not' with 40.5%. Products which were most often checked were milk/milk products (3.44), snacks/bread (3.33), and soft drinks (3.07). Among nutrition labeling items, total calories was the most important, followed by fat, carbohydrate, cholesterol and calcium. The question regarding the knowledge of nutrition labeling rated an average of 0.58 (out of 1). There was a significant positive correlation between the degree of the nutrition label verification and the dietary attitude score, along with the nutrition labeling knowledge and the nutrition knowledge score of the subjects. On the other hand, the degree of the nutrition label verification and the knowledge on nutrition labeling had a significant negative correlation. Hence, it is of the opinion that education on properly reading nutrient information is necessary to enable adolescents to apply that in real life. Furthermore, labeling nutritional information on processed fred through a more comprehensive method is deemed necessary as a supporting measure.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.533-543
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• 2009

The objective of this study was to compare the differences of opinion, purchasing behavior, and recognition of food labeling and nutrition labeling of frozen processed food between employees and non-employees in the frozen food industry. The results of this survey study showed that the group working in the frozen food industry had a positive opinion of frozen processed food compared to the non-employee group who was not working in the food industry. The main reason for the positive opinion of frozen processed food was because it was convenient and easy to prepare while the main concern with consuming frozen processed food was that it was bad for one's health. The most popular menu was western style. Sixty one percent of employees in the frozen food industry preferred the microwave-cooking method, while only 37.9% of non-employees preferred the microwave-cooking method followed by cooking in boiling water (27.6%). There was a significant (p<0.001) difference in the preference of cooking method between these two groups. Most of the respondents considered 'taste' as the most important factor and 32.9% of the respondents selected 'sanitation/health' as the most serious concern for the consumption of frozen processed food. Both groups checked the food & nutrition label to verify the expiration date and the presence of food additives. The non-employee group recognized the need for nutritional information on total calorie, carbohydrate, protein, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, minerals, vitamins, sodium, and fiber on the nutrition label of frozen processed food.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.154-162
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• 2023

This study investigated the awareness and consumption behavior of 118 vegetarians and omnivores toward plant-based dairy alternatives. The preference and choice attribute questionnaires were compared. Significant differences were obtained between the two groups when considering the purchase experience, preference, and selection attributes of plant-based dairy alternatives. Vegetarians had more experience purchasing plant-based dairy alternative products. In both groups, environmental and animal protection were the major factors that influenced the highest response rate for purchasing plant-based dairy alternatives. The preference score of vegetarians for plant-based dairy alternative products was high, indicating that vegetarianism had a significant effect on their preference for plant-based dairy alternative products. Analysis of selection attributes revealed that price, product weight, appearance, and manufacturer were considered important by vegetarians, whereas nutritional components and labeling, manufacturing environment, composition of ingredients, and taste and texture were considered more important by the omnivores. Results of this study can be used as basic data for the future development of the fast-growing industry producing plant-based dairy alternative products.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.428-432
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• 2010

In this study, we investigated that consumers could differentiate between levels of claims and clarify how a visual aid influences consumer understanding of the different claim levels. We interviewed 2,000 consumers in 13 shopping malls on their perception of and confidence in different levels of health claims using seven point scales. The average confidence scores given by participants were 4.17 for the probable level and 4.07 for the possible level; the score for the probable level was significantly higher than that for the possible level (P < 0.05). Scores for confidence in claims after reading labels with and without a visual aid were 5.27 and 4.43, respectively; the score for labeling with a visual aid was significantly higher than for labeling without a visual aid (P < 0.01). Our results provide compelling evidence that providing health claims with qualifying language differentiating levels of scientific evidence can help consumers understand the strength of scientific evidence behind those claims. Moreover, when a visual aid was included, consumers perceived the scientific levels more clearly and had greater confidence in their meanings than when a visual aid was not included. Although this result suggests that consumers react differently to different claim levels, it is not yet clear whether consumers understand the variations in the degree of scientific support.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.202-213
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• 1985

The protein nutritional quality of foods has become an important factor to food processors with the advent of nutritional labeling regulations for foods. Then, as is true today, the officially approved assay for protein nutritional quality was the rat based protein efficiency ratio(PER) bioassay. The PER bioassay requires a minimum of 28 days to performe, and is therefore not applicable to routine quality assurance use by the food industry. Within the past ten years there has been a research emphasis placed on the development of rapid, inexpensive, biological and/or chemical based assays for protein nutritional quality. It was hoped that if a rapid assay could be developed and thoroughly tested, it could be used in lieu of the PER bioassay in the day-to-day quality assurance screening of food ingredients and products. The rapid assays developed in the hope of attaining this goal have been based on microorganisms, proteolytic enzymes, and amino acid profiles, as well as combinations of the above. In this review, it will be described and briefly discussed many of procedures which had contributed conceptually as well as practically to the development of in vitro methods for the evaluation of protein quality. Special emphasis will be placed on the C-PER(computed protein efficiency ratio) assay which combines data from in vitro protease digestion and amino acid composition to predict protein nutritional quality designed by Satterlee et al. (1980), and the DC-PER(discriminant computed PER) which is a method of estimating protein quality based on rat assay and in vitro digestibility obtained using solely essential amino acid data will be also introduced.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.179-184
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• 2007

The objective of this study was to investigate the contents of meat and non-meat ingredients, calorie, fatty acid composition, and cholesterol contents of processed meat products of which informations are being provided for consumer and partly required for the current labeling system in Korea. A total of sixty-one domestic processed meat products produced from 6 domestic meat companies were collected at the large supermarkets in Suwon city; 1) 31 ham products(3 loin hams, 6 press hams, 20 mixed press hams and 2 fish hams), 26 sausage products(15 pork sausages, 7 mixed sausages and 4 fish sausages) and 4 ground processed meat products. Soy protein and com starch were widely used as non-meat ingredients for the most of processed meat products. The contents of meat, protein, fat, cholesterol contents, and calories were 75-98, 12-23, 1-16%, 7-50 mg/100g, and 1,620-3,127 cal/g for ham products and 60-96, 5-17, 3-27%, 5-73 mg/100g, and 1,271-3,546 cal/g for sausage products, respectively. The saturated(SFA), monounsaturated(MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids(PUFA) contents of ham products were 31-40, 44-53 and 60-72%, and those of sausage products were 17-38, 34-61, and 13-37%, respectively. The ranges of meat contents and nutritional compositions were considerably broad even in the same type of the meat products. Therefore, the labeling system of the nutritional facts for ham as well as sausage products is necessary to categorize the quality level and thus to give the nutritional information to consumer for better choice of products in market.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2001

Consumers'frequent use of micronutrient supplements has caused concerns o possible overdoses and prompted the view that the appropriate provision of nutrition information on such supplements is needed. In this study the nutrition information on vitamin-mineral supplements in Korea was evaluated based on the labels on the supplements. Consumers'use, reliance on and demand for nutrition information were examined by self-administered questionnaire. Subjects were 1,203 middle-aged housewives. Under examination were 141 multinutrient products (86.6%) and single nutrient products (13.4%). Various names and units were used for the same nutrient and the labels were not informative to consumers. The mode of nutrients contents in the supplements were several fold of RDA though not in the range of toxicity. %RDA value was seldom shown on the label. Currently these supplements are classified as general drugs in Korea so they are not subject to regulations on nutrition labeling. Half of the subjects read the nutrient content list but two-thirds of them did not understand the information. Numerous health claims related to diseases were listed on the label and more than half of the subjects read them and one-third believed those health claims. These results indicate the need for an appropriate format for nutrition information on vitamin-mineral supplements.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.129-142
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• 2023

As the demand for ready-to-eat foods continues to grow, concerns about the sodium in processed foods are also growing. In this study, a survey was conducted on the perception of low-sodium products and diffusion plans according to the type of employee (manufacturer, retailer, distributor). Of the 191 responses collected, 189 valid responses (98.9%) were analyzed. The results showed that the employees were aware of the health contribution of a low-sodium diet, labeling for low-sodium, and the promotion of low-sodium food to increase its consumption. Furthermore, retailers recognized the positive contribution of low-sodium products in terms of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management. The use of sodium substitutes was preferred as the best way to reduce sodium in ready-to-eat foods. With regard to sodium reduction in ready-to-eat foods, we found that the technical factors involved were clustered by the type of business. Specifically, distributors showed a similar performance but had a lower perception of importance than retailers. Manufacturers had a lower perception of both importance and performance. In this study, we collected perceptions from employees who were working at food companies, which differed from previous research. We sought to examine the differences in the perception of sodium reduction and consumption of ready-to-eat foods across various types of employment. Furthermore, we provided specific approaches to reduce perception gaps and enhance understanding among employees.