This research has been conducted to find out the understandings of the nutrition factor indication, the recognition and use of fast food nutrition factor indication at the example stores, and the selection behavior to analyze the acceptance behavior d...
This research has been conducted to find out the understandings of the nutrition factor indication, the recognition and use of fast food nutrition factor indication at the example stores, and the selection behavior to analyze the acceptance behavior depending on whether having prior knowledge on the nutrition indication, in order to present the importance of consumer education and promotion.
The survey has been conducted against a group of 400 high school students in their first, second and third years living in Seoul and Incheon area, attending food-related or non-food-related majors in technical high schools. The survey was done over the period from April 10th to April 20th, 2008, with the result being as follows.
Firstly, as for the selection behavior of the fast food, the average intake of fast food appeared to happen 1 to 3 times a week among the most students, with the most popular kinds of the fast food being Ddukboki, Gimbap, Chicken, Pizza, and Hamburgers in the order of the most frequent intakes. The most common reason of eating fast food was as a meal, and many students thought of the fast food as being high ? calorie and having harmful ingredients such as cholesterol and trans fat, revealing the negative impressions on the fast foods.
Secondly, the survey on the recognition and use of the nutrition indication showed that the students in food-related majors have more understandings and make actual references to the indication when they make the purchases. And, 72.1% of the interviewees answered they have experienced an education on the nutrition indication system. 62.1% said they check the contents of the nutrition indications, with the most common answered when asked of the reason of checking it to be to find out whether the food contains any harmful ingredients such as cholesterol and trans fat. As for the understandings on the kinds of the food for which the nutrition indication is a mandatory, only 32.5% of the students knew there was a standard for the kind of the food and ingredients subject to the nutrition indication, while most of the students agreed the necessity on the educations on the kinds of the foods and ingredients subject to the nutrition indication. When provided with the basic information on the kind of food and ingredients subject to the nutrition indication and asked of the effects of such knowledge in purchasing food, 53% said they would definitely check the nutrition indication at the times of purchasing.
Thirdly, it was revealed by the survey on the understanding and use of the example stores for the practice of the nutrition indication that very few students appeared to be aware of the example program itself; however, the necessity of making the nutrition indication obligatory were agreed to be very important. Only 18.5% said they have used an example store, and as for their experiences of using them, their impressions on the indication of the example stores, the fonts of the indication messages, the contents of the indications, and the integrity of the operators of the example stores appeared to be negative. 74.6% of the students said they would use nutrition indication example stores, when asked whether they would. For the kind of the information to be indicated, most of the students said they would like to know the calories of the foods. For the method of indication, they preferred the indications to be made on the menu boards, menus on the counters, tray mats, and the web sites, by the order of preferences. When asked what the most important factors for the imposing of the nutrition indication system is, the integrity of the store operators to comply with the systems, the consumers organization’s concerns over the indication system, and incessant monitoring were the answers given mostly.