• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.334-340
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• 2014

Toxin-producing Bacillus cereus is the causative agent of two different types of food poisoning: the emetic and the diarrheal types. This study was conducted to investigate the presence of enterotoxin and emetic toxin genes in 263 B. cereus isolated from 619 different ready-to-eat food items. Hemolytic enterotoxins hblA, hblC, and hblD were detected in 85.6, 41.1, and 76.8%, respectively, of the B. cereus isolates. About 67.0% (175/263) of the isolates presented all of three genes. Non-hemolytic enterotoxins nheA, nheB, and nheC were detected in 100, 97.0, and 68.4% of the isolates, respectively. Approximately 90.0% (236/263) of the isolates presented all of these three non-hemolytic enterotoxin genes. Emetic toxin gene, CER, was detected in 132 of 263 (50.2%) isolates. Computer-assisted cluster analysis of Rep-PCR profiles showed a high genetic diversity among the isolates. All B. cereus isolates from food samples tested in this study carried at least 6 of 10 toxin genes.

• 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.51 no.5
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• pp.480-487
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• 2018

Purpose: The study examined the Chinese and Japanese consumers' preference for Korean home meal replacement (HMR) product package designs using conjoint analysis. Methods: The questionnaire survey was completed by 270 consumers living in Beijing, China and Osaka, Japan, over the age of 20 years old, who had previously purchased or consumed a Korean HMR. Based on the attributes and levels within each attribute related to the Korean HMR product package design, 54 profiles were constructed. Of the 54 profiles, 11 combinations were selected using an orthogonal design, and the participants were asked to rank the 11 combinations in order of preference from top to bottom. Results: The relative importance of the Korean HMR product package design attributes were analyzed. Chinese consumers regarded illustration, ingestion form, concept, and brand name, in that order, to be most important. In the case of Japanese consumers, illustration, concept, ingestion form, and brand name, in that order, were most important. For the illustration attributes, in order of importance, Chinese consumers preferred raw materials, characters, and celebrities, and Japanese consumers preferred characters, raw materials, and celebrities. For the concept attributes, Chinese consumers favored, witty, traditional Korean, and modern concepts, whereas Japanese consumers favored witty, modern, and then traditional Korean concepts. For the ingestion form attributes, both Chinese and Japanese consumers preferred Ready To Eat (RTE), followed by Ready To Heat (RTH), and then Ready To Cook (RTC). For the brand name attributes, both Chinese and Japanese consumers preferred the localized brand name over the Korean brand name. Conclusion: Differences in the relative importance of Korean HMR product package design attributes were observed among Chinese and Japanese consumers, and there were differences in preference according to the levels within each attribute. These results are expected to provide useful basic data to assist in the future development of differentiated HMR package designs and marketing strategies to meet consumer needs in the market for Korean HMR in China and Japan.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.37-43
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• 2019

Purpose - The self quality inspection which is mandatory in Republic of Korea can play an important role in promoting food safety, but the cost for self quality inspection is also a big burden especially for small businesses. In addition, excessive or duplicated inspection costs resulting from the standard gaps of various ministries and agencies ultimately effect negative social utility. Thus, this paper aims to suggest ways to improve the analysis of self quality inspection for the Ready-to-Eat Foods in terms of dried laver, in order to reduce costs caused by overinclusion. Research design, data, and methodology - The focus of interest is seaweed in Kimbab, which is to be exempted from the Vibrio parahaemolyticus test on the three grounds. First, existing literature provides little support for the necessity of performing a microbiological test. Second, laver products do not require the V.parahaemolyticus test by international standards such as the CODEX. Third, no case was found for seaweed products on the list of information on failed food items over the 2015~16 period. Results - Other types of seaweed such as exportable and seasoning seaweed are not subject to the test. Hence, exclusion of the V.pahaemolyticus test on seaweed is a valid point, bringing about large expected cost savings to many small businesses. Conclusions - Based on a complete survey of 75 food-testing agencies from March 20th to 30th, 2018, this paper finds that the proposed revision of the Kimbab test is likely to save an average of 130,000 won per business per year. Especially, in the case of the testing fee of Salmonella spp.(n,c,m,M), the cost difference by agencies was found to be up to five times. The regional gap in testing fees can be considered an unfair barrier. Accordingly, it is necessary to examine whether the testing fee is set at an appropriate level through the cost-extraction program proposed by the Ministry Food and Drug Safety. Hence, the survey results also point out that harmonization of testing fees charged by different food-testing agencies is appropriate with respect to transparency and efficiency.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.157-168
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• 2009

The principal objective of this study was to provide basic data regarding health care services for middle-aged men, via an analysis of the relationships among stress level, food habits and well-being-related attitudes with social-demographic characteristics and health-related factors. The main findings of this study were as follows. The average age of the participants was $48.7{\pm}5.2$. With regard to health status, 18.8% of the participants were diagnosed with digestive diseases within the past year. Stress levels were higher in the participants with lower levels of educational attainment. Furthermore, participants who had become divorced or lived separately from their families, participants who did not have their own houses, and participants who reported low marital satisfaction also had high levels of stress. Our food habits scores revealed meaningful differences among the study subjects, and were shown to vary with marital satisfaction, occupation, and residence type. In terms of both the importance and practice level of well-being-associated food habits, the most frequent response in this study was 'Consume home-made food rather than processed or ready-to-eat food' ($4.30{\pm}0.86$, $3.68{\pm}1.04$). In terms of importance level, the factors most relevant to well-being in terms of food habits were education level, marital satisfaction, residence type, self-assessed health status, smoking, drinking, regular exercises and leisure activities. With regard to practice levels, the degree to which subjects engaged in food habits targeted toward well-being differed meaningfully depending on marital status, marital satisfaction, residence type, family type, self-assessed health status, smoking, drinking, nutritional supplement intake, regular exercises and leisure activities. After analyzing the correlation among stress level, food habit score and the attitude towards well-being-related dietary habits (importance and practice level), we observed a meaningful relationship between the four factors at the level of p<0.001. According to the above result, continuous attention to health, including the appropriate control of smoking and drinking, as well as, stress management, via regular exercises and appropriate food habits is expected to exert a positive influence on the prevention of disease, and is also expected to improve quality of life. For all well-being-associated items, the importance level was shown to be higher than the practice level. Thus, in order to foster health-oriented food habits, we recommend that a new plan be designed, targeted toward ease of active practice for middle-aged men.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.238-245
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• 2004

Objectives : This study was conducted to examine the smoking behaviors and the relationship between smoking and other health behaviors among medical students. Methods : A self-administrated questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1,775 students from four medical schools between April and May 2003. Due to the small number of female smokers, the characteristics of smoking behaviors were analyzed only for males. Results : A total of 1,367 students (920 males and 447 females) completed the questionnaires, with an overall response rate of 77.7%. The smoking rates for males and females were 31.5, and 2.2%, respectively. Among the male smokers, 70.7% smoked daily, and 39.0% smoked one pack or more per day. Male students on medical course were more likely to smoke daily, and one pack or more per day, than those on premedical course. Male daily smokers desired to quit smoking less than occasional smokers, and 65.0% of male daily smokers were not ready to quit compared with 37.8% of the occasional smokers. Among the male daily smokers, 29.6% were severely nicotine dependent. The most common reason for not to quit smoking among male smokers was 'no alternative stress coping method' (44.4%), followed by 'lack of will power' (25.4%), and 'no need to quit' (19.4%). Compared with male non-smokers, male smokers were more likely to drink alcohol more often and in larger amounts, take coffee more often, eat breakfast less regularly, and be overweight or obese. Conclusions : The results of this study suggest that many male medical students were serious smokers, especially those on medical course. It is necessary to install a smoking prevention program for pre-medical students, provide effective smoking cessation methods for smokers, teach positive stress coping methods, and make the school environment suitable for coping with stress.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.422-431
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• 2016

To investigate the causes of the thermal deformations of packaging materials when microwave-heating ready-to-eat sauce products packaged in stand-up pouches, patterns of temperature changes were determined using an infra-red thermal imaging camera, a thermo-sensitive tape, and a fiver-optic thermometer. The temperature distributions of spicy chicken sauce and Indian curry samples in a stand-up pouch were found to be uneven during micrewave heating. A sharp increase in the temperature was detected, especially above the filling layers and in the corners of sealing layers of the package. The temperature measurements using an infra-red thermal imaging camera are restricted to the surface, and therefore might underestimate the actual temperature. Using a thermo-sensitive tape, temperature up to $200^{\circ}C$ were measured in the spicy chicken sauce sample showing package deformation. When the temperature is measured using a fiber-optic thermometer, it is crucial to have precise sensor performance to accurately measure the temperature in a narrow hot-spot area of the package. In this experiment, the fiber-optic thermometer was attached to a GaAs crystal sensor, which obtained more sensitive and accurate temperature measurements than those by a convectional sensor.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2015

Heating patterns depending on the packaging materials were examined in order to investigate the causes of thermal deformation of packages used for ready-to-eat foods for microwave heating due to the non-uniformity of microwaves. Physical properties including tensile strength, heat-resistance and elongation of four different CPP grades were compared. High retortable CPP had higher sealing strength and heat resistance compared to the conventional CPPs. All CPP samples tested were proved to have melting temperatures around $160^{\circ}C$. However, they were all thermally deformed by microwave heating due to a limited penetration of microwave and non-uniform heating within the spicy sauce of high viscosity contained high salt, especially on the above the filling line and sealing edge of pouches. When the laminated stand-up pouches composed of G-PET/PET/PET/CPP and G-PET/PET/NY/CPP were retorted and microwaved, significant deformations were noticed in both samples after retorting. Besides, pouches contained titanium dioxide showed more intense thermal deformation than the control. When the $10{\mu}m$ aluminium foil was affixed on the pouch, small thermal deformation was observed only in the bottom layer. More studies are required to prevent the thermal deformation of packaging materials used for RTE foods during microwave heating by developing the technologies to increase the thermal stability of CPP layer and the modification of packaging design to modify the microwave access into the package.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.476-482
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• 2023

This study aimed to investigate the acrylamide content in frozen food products after cooking. Twenty samples of bread (Group 1) and 30 samples of processed tuberous and corn vegetable products (Group 2) were selected. Acrylamide levels were quantified using liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The frozen food samples were heated using the air fryer cooking method according to the product packaging and were compared to ready-to-eat French fries (Group 3). The results showed that the acrylamide content was the highest in group 3, followed by that in group 2 and group 1. The acrylamide content of all the samples was found to be within the domestic recommended standard of 1 mg/kg. However, when the samples that exceeded EU benchmark level (0.5 mg/kg) were selected and cooked using the deep-fat frying method according to the product packaging, one of them showed the acrylamide content of 1.83 mg/kg, which exceeded the domestic recommended standard. The present study highlights the need for continued evaluation and management to reduce acrylamide contents in frozen foods, as increasing domestic exposure to acrylamide is concerning.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.6 s.73
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• pp.941-947
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• 2005

The contamination frequency of major foodborne pathogenic bacteria was investigated from 213 seafood samples including sliced raw fish and shellfish in Busan and CyeongNam province area. Tested microorganisms were Salmonella spp. Staphyloroccus aureus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Bncillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes and Campylobacter jejuni. The frequency of isolated microorganisms was V. parahaemolyticus (30.5%), B. cereus (9.9%), S. aureus (3.8%) and other pathogenic bacteria (1.4%). from July to October, total isolation rates were greater than 50% and V. parahaemolyticus was dominant among the microorganisms isolated. The bacteria isolation rate (49.2%) in raw seafoods including shellfishes was higher than one (28.9%) in sliced raw fish. V. parahaemelyticus isolates were resistant to ampicillin (96.9%), amikacin (29.2%) and tetracycline (27.7%), and B. cereus isolates were resistant to ampicillin (100%), Penicillin G (100%), rifampicin (71.4%) and tetracycline (14.3%). The growth of V. parahaemolyticus and B. rereus was greatly inhibited below $10^{\circ}C$, but increased at ambient temperature. Washing seafood with tap water showed to reduce total count of remaining V. parahaemolyticus. Thus temperature control under $10^{\circ}C$, sufficient washing and prompt eating appeared to reduce the risk of food poisoning by these bacteria in seafoods.