• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.25-43
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• 2020

Although ready meals have recently increased their market share in the Korean food industry, a literature review found that the use of ready meals triggers feelings of guilt in homemakers. Such guilt arises as a result of several factors apparently related to consumers' health. Consequently, levels of guilt might be expected to vary depending on consumers' perceived health locus. The present study aims to examine (a) how health locus affects guilty feelings about ready-meal consumption, (b) how the effect varies in relation to the consumption of different types of ready meal, and (c) the relationship between consumers' guilty feelings and willingness to buy ready meals. Three dimensions of health locus of control (HLC) -internal HLC (IHLC), powerful-others HLC (PHLC), and chance HLC (CHLC)- were presumed to influence consumers' feelings of guilt in association with ready meals. Data were collected via an online survey, and participants were randomly assigned to either of two groups: one group was instructed to heat meals in a microwave (ready-to-heat [RTH] group, n=104) and the other cooked using a pan with additional ingredients (ready-to-cook [RTC] group, n=101). The study found that guilty feelings about consuming RTH meals increased in line with increased external HLCs, namely, PHLC and CHLC. For the RTC group, guilt increased in line with increased PHLC. IHLC had no significant effect on guilty feelings in either group. Willingness to buy ready meals decreased for both groups as consumers' feelings of guilt increased. Even RTC meals, which require more time and energy in food preparation, did not reduce guilty feelings among consumers with higher PHLC. RTC meals are preferable for consumers with higher CHLC, since their sense of greater involvement in the cooking process alleviates their feelings of guilt. Cooking with already prepared and uncooked ingredients brought fun and joy, both for the participants and their significant others. This interpretation may be developed into a strategic plan by ready-meal producers to strengthen their marketing strategy.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.332-338
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine consumers' behaviors toward ready-to-eat foods and to develop ready-to-eat food market segmentation in Korea. The food-related lifestyle and purchase behaviors of ready-to-eat foods were evaluated using 410 ready-to-eat food consumers in the Republic of Korea. Four factors were extracted by exploratory factor analysis (health-orientation, taste-orientation, convenience-orientation, and tradition-orientation) to explain the ready-to eat food consumers' food-related lifestyles. The results of cluster analysis indicated that "tradition seekers" and "convenience seekers" should be regarded as the target segments. Chi-square tests and t-tests of the subdivided groups showed there were significant differences across marital status, education level, family type, eating-out expenditure, place of purchase, and reason for purchase. In conclusion, the tradition seekers consumed more ready-to-eat foods from discount marts or specialty stores and ate them between meals more often than the convenience seekers. In contrast, the convenience seekers purchased more ready-to-eat foods at convenience stores and ate them as meals more often than the tradition seekers. These findings suggest that ready-to-eat food market segmentation based on food-related lifestyles can be applied to develop proper marketing strategies.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.81-90
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• 2012

This study is to research the use and the demand of the elderly generation that pursue economic ability and active lifestyle. The composition of the meals were "homemade meals" 65.3%, "homemade & convenience meals" 26.7% overall. For the "never miss a meal" category, 70-74 years old was 48.3%, over 80 years old was 60.0%. The elderly under 70 years old showed a high frequency in the use of alternative meals (p < 0.05) and the elderly with higher education used the alternative meals more frequently (p < 0.01). The rice-cakes, bread, tuna cans, Korean side-dishes, beverages, meat, cup-noodles and seafood as alternative meals are in the order of most frequency. Also, 96.0%, 59.0% and 46.5% of the elderly had experience in using "Ready to eat (RTE)", "Ready to heat (RTH)" and "Ready to cook (RTC)". The oldest group surveyed, the elderly at the age of 80 years old and above showed lower preference for "completely cooked state" but showed highest results in the "half-cooked state". This shows the difference between people's perception and the behavior that showed high frequency of 96.0% in the experience with "RTE". This can be inferred that the elderly needs the development of convenience food that is moderately packaged according to the newer lifestyle where the elderly live independent from their children. Moreover, there is a higher demand in the healthy convenience food, which means that there is a need for development in the quality of the convenience food that will allow more faith in convenience food by the elderly.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.31-38
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• 2023

Purpose: Each emergency event has several aspects of impact, including the effects on lives, economy, and the environment. Additionally, the damage to infrastructure systems can contribute to food shortages during a disaster. Research design, data and methodology: This research aims to study ready-to-eat food innovations that influence the consumer buying behavior of emergency victims and to develop ready-to-eat meal innovations to help emergency victims with an emphasis on research and innovation of Meals Ready-to-Eat (MREs). Results: A questionnaire was employed to collect the data from people living in Pak Kret Municipality, Nonthaburi Province. Pak Kret Municipality is administered under five subdistricts, covering 34 villages in Pak Kret, Bang Phut, Ban Mai, Bang Talat, and Khlong Kluea. Multiple correlation and multiple regression techniques were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that integrated marketing communication, unique proposition, customer orientation, and product variety influenced consumer buying behavior of MREs to help emergency victims at a statistically significance level of 0.05. Conclusions: The results indicate that, in emergency situations, MREs play a crucial role. When infrastructure and essential services are disrupted, MREs are a convenient and long-lasting option for providing timely assistance during emergencies.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.105-118
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to compare the performance mode of housework related to daily meals. The data for 214 Korean couples living in Seoul and 136 Japanese Couples in Tokyo were collected using structured questionnaires and time diaries. The performance mode of housework were analyzed according to the employment status of wives. The results were as follows; Generally Koreans and Japanese wives had similar patterns in the time use of meals preparation and dish washing. In both nations Husbands seldom participated meals preparation, wives did most part of the work. But Japanese husbands of full-time employed wives spent more time on meals preparation than their Korean counterparts did. Korean wives received more help from other family members and paid labor, on the contrary Japanese wives purchased more ready-made goods for food preparation.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.265-270
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• 2006

This study was performed in order to measure the level of food-borne pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance pattern of found ready to eat meals such as Him-bap, Cho-bap, Hamburger, Sandwich and packed lunch boxes. A total of 497 samples were collected from supermarket and department of Seoul, Kyung-ki, Inctleon, Kang-won, Chung-Cheong from November, 2005 to March, 2006. The contaminated microorganisms were in most cases tract relative strain like E. coli and S. aureus. Result have shown E. coli was detected 4 strains and S. aureus was detected 22 strains. 26 strains were also tested the antibiotic resistance pattern. 26 strains were shown to be relatively susceptible to synercid, vancomycin, teicoplanin, ciprofloxacin, gentamycin, lincomycn, cefotaxime, meropenem, cephalosporin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid by the MIC dilution method, but E. coli 1 strain was resistant to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.269-280
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between HMR use and eating habits in young Korean adults. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 575 adults (232 men, 343 women) in their 20s and 30s in Korea. Their use of HMRs (classified as ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook, and fresh convenience foods) and eating habits were surveyed. The main reasons for HMR use by men and women were convenience (54.7%, 64.4%) and promptness (24.2%, 24.2%), respectively. The most frequent place for HMR purchase was a convenience store (74.1% and 65.0%, respectively). Regarding the frequency of HMR use, 1~2 times a week was the highest for ready-to-eat (40.9%) and ready-to-cook (30.1%), while no eating was the highest for fresh convenience foods (41.0%). HMR preference was the highest (3.8 out of 5 on a 5-point scale) for ready-to-eat, followed by ready-to-cook (3.3 points) and fresh convenience foods (3.3 points). The use frequency and preference of total HMRs, ready-to-eat foods, and ready-to-eat foods were positively correlated with unfavorable eating habits, including unbalanced eating, overeating, salty eating, spicy eating, skipping, and irregular meals. However, fresh convenience foods showed negative correlations with unbalanced eating, overeating, and salty eating. The use frequency and preference of total HMRs, ready-to-eat foods, and ready-to-cook foods were positively correlated with undesirable eating habits. However, fresh convenience food showed a negative correlation with eating habits such as unbalanced, overeating, and salty eating. These results should be considered for favorable food production and consumer guidance to promote healthy food choices.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.788-800
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• 2008

This study was executed in order to analyze the purchasing practices, preferences, and satisfaction of consumers purchasing ready-to-eat foods. The study was executed from the $20\;May{\sim}30\;June$ 2007 in the Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do area. Questionnaires were distributed among 480 people. Of these, 410 questionnaires were collected and applied to a statistical analysis. Statistical analyses were conducted using the SPSS package program (version 14.0 for windows). The results of the statistical analyses were as follows. 42.4% males and 57.6% females participated in this study. The biggest motivation behind the purchase of ready-to-eat foods was convenience, 51.0%. The most common venues where these foods were purchased were supermarkets or discount marts, 67.6%. The ratio of substituting ready-to-eat foods for meals was 70.5%. The consumption practices of ready-to-eat foods of the consumers according to purchase place illustrated significant differences in the average expense per person each time (p<0.01), co-consumer (p<0.001), and age (p<0.05). The purchase preference was high with kimbaps (73.4%), hamburgers (29.8%), sushis (29.0%), and sandwiches (27.9%). Unmarried individuals showed a significantly higher overall liking and satisfaction for ready-to-eat foods than married individuals (p<0.001). Individuals living without a family was significantly higher overall liking and satisfaction than individuals living with a family (p<0.05). Individuals who spent an average of 10,000 won per time showed a significantly higher overall liking and satisfaction than those who spent below 10,000 won per time (p<0.05). In the presence of a friend as a co-consumer of ready-to-eat foods, satisfaction was significantly high (p<0.01). Consumers who purchased ready-to-eat foods at meal times, showed a significantly higher overall liking, compared to those who purchased such food products in between meal times (p<0.01). The preference and satisfaction degree of the consumer must be reflected by product development, quality improvement and marketing plan establishment.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.664-669
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• 2004

The contamination of Bacillus cereus was investigated in 240 RTE (ready-to-eat) food samples including 118 seafoods, 82 Korean packaged meals and 40 other RTE foods. Many B. cereus presumptive strains were isolated from the enrichment culture in Tryptic Soy Broth (TSB) added polymyxin, followed by selective culture in Mannitol Egg Yolk Polymyxin (MYP) agar and Gram staining. A total of 36 strains (16 in seafoods, 17 in Korean pack-aged meals and 3 in other RTE foods) were identified as B. cereus by the analysis of 61 biochemical tests of the API 50CHB/20E system test and supplementary tests of $\beta$-hemolysis, rhizoid growth, motility and oxidase activity. The 28 strains out of 36 B. cereus isolates produced diarrhoeal enter-otoxin in Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) broth. All isolates were resistant to ampicillin and penicillin antibiotics, and most of them were susceptible to gentamicin, vancomycin, bacitracin, chloram-phenicol, kanamycin and streptomycin. The growth of B. cereus was affected by environmental temperature and incubation time. Culture with temperature under 1$0^{\circ}C$ effectively restricted the growth of B. cereus.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.124-136
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• 2017

This study was performed to investigate the perception and preferences regarding commercial universal design foods (UDF) made with different ingredients. A one-to-one interview was used for data collection and the survey was conducted on 41 elderly people (over age 65; males: 11, females: 30) attending senior welfare centers in Seoul. Twelve UDF samples were collected, which were widely sold in Japan. Majority of respondents prepared meals (53.7%) and ate alone (43.9%), respectively. The preferred cooking level of elderly food was "ready to eat (RTE)" (43.9%) or "ready to heat (RTH)" (43.9%) rather than fresh cut product. In most, the elderly had no problem with chewing-action (90.2%). Generally, food ingredients such as grain, meat, seafood and fruits showed higher preference than vegetable and nuts. Among 12 UDF samples, pumpkin gratin (4.17) and peach flavored jelly (4.27) showed higher preferences among tested samples on a 5-point facial hedonic scale. There were no significant differences in overall preferences of all samples by difficulty in terms of chewing and swallowing of respondents. Demi-glace sauce hamburger and pot sukiyaki were more preferred as age increased (p<0.05).